THE    NEW   SOUTH 

A  CHRONICLE  OF  SOCIAL 

AND  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION 

BY  HOLLAND   THOMPSON 


NEW    HAVEN:    YALE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

TORONTO:   GLASGOW,    BROOK    &    CO. 

LONDON:    HUMPHREY    MILFORD 

OXFORD     UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

1921 


Copyright,  1919,  by  Yale  University  Press 


CONTENTS 

I.     THE   BACKGROUND  Page      1 

II.     THE    CONFEDERATE    SOLDIER  TAKES 

CHARGE  "  9 

III.     THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN             "  31 

IV.     THE  FARMER  AND   THE   LAND  "  60 

—  V.     INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  f<  86 

—    VI.     LABOR  CONDITIONS  "  106  - 

• —  VII.     THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE         "  129  / 

— 'VIII.     EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  "  157 

~~      IX.     THE   SOUTH  OF  TODAY  "  191 

THE   REPUDIATION   OF  STATE   DEBTS           "  227 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  "  235 

INDEX  "  243 


477760 

VII 


ILLUSTRATION 

COTTON  PICKERS 

After  a  photograph  by  Brown  Bros.  Frontispiece 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    BACKGROUND 

THE  South  of  today  is  not  the  South  of  1860  or 
even  of  1865.  There  is  a  New  South,  though  not 
perhaps  in  the  sense  usually  understood,  for  no  ex 
pression  has  been  more  often  misused  in  super 
ficial  discussion.  Men  have  written  as  if  the  phrase 
indicated  a  new  land  and  a  new  civilization,  utterly 
unlike  anything  that  had  existed  before  and  involv 
ing  a  sharp  break  with  the  history  and  the  tradi 
tions  of  the  past.  Nothing  could  be  more  untrue. 
Peoples  do  not  in  one  generation  or  in  two  rid 
themselves  entirely  of  characteristics  which  have 
been  developing  for  centuries. 

There  is  a  New  South,  but  it  is  a  logical  develop 
ment  from  the  Old  South.  The  civilization  of  the 
South  today  has  not  been  imposed  from  without 


£  .:'.: :.    ': :  .:'  /THE  NEW  SOUTH 

but  has  been  an  evolution  from  within,  though  in 
fluenced  by  the  policy  of  the  National  Govern 
ment.  The  Civil  War  changed  the  whole  organiza 
tion  of  Southern  society,  it  is  true,  but  it  did  not 
modify  its  essential  attributes,  to  quote  the  ablest 
of  the  carpetbaggers,  Albion  W.  Tourgee.  Re 
construction  strengthenedjexisting  prejudices  and 
created  new  bitterness,  but  the  attempt  failed  to 
make  of  South  Carolina  another  Massachusetts. 
The  people  resisted  stubbornly,  desperately,  and  in 
the  end  successfully,  every  attempt  to  impose  upon 
them  alien  institutions. 

The  story  of  Reconstruction  has  been  told  else 
where.  J  A  combination  of  two  ideas  —  high- 
minded  altruism  and  a  vindictive  desire  to  humil 
iate  a  proud  people  for  partisan  advantage  - 
wrought  mischief  which  has  not  been  repaired  in 
nearly  half  a  century.  It  is  to  be  doubted,  how 
ever,  whether  Reconstruction  actually  changed  in 
any  essential  point  the  beliefs  of  the  South.  Left 
to  itself,  the  South  would  not,  after  the  War,  have 
given  the  vote  to  the  ftegro.  When  left  to  itself 
still  later,  it  took  the  ballot  away.  The  South 
would  not  normally  have  accepted  the  tyegro  as  a 

1  See  The  Sequel  of  Appomattox,  by  Walter  Lynwood  Fleming  (in 
The  Chronicles  of  America). 


THE  BACKGROUND  3 

social  equal.  The  attempt  to  force  the  barrier  be 
tween  the  races  by  legislation  with  the  aid  of  bayo 
nets  failed.  Without  the  taste  of  power  during  the 
Reconstruction  period,  the  black  South  would  not 
have  demanded  so  much  and  the  determination  of 
the  white  South  to  dominate  would  not  perhaps 
have  been  expressed  so  bitterly;  but  in  any  case 
the  white  South  would  have  dominated. 

Economic  and  industrial  development  was  hin 
dered  by  Reconstruction.  Men  of  vision  had  seen 
before  the  War  that  the  South  must  become  more 
nearly  self-sufficient;  and  the  results  of  the  conflict 
had  emphasized  this  idea.  The  South  believed, 
and  believes  yet,  that  it  was  defeated  by  the  block 
ade  and  not  by  military  force.  According  to  this 
theory,  the  North  won  because  the  South  could  not 
manufacture  goods  for  its  needs,  because  it  did  not 
possess  ships  to  bring  in  goods  from  abroad,  and 
because  it  could  not  build  a  navy  to  defend  its 
ports.  Today  it  is  clear  that  the  South  never  had 
a  chance  to  win,  so  long  as  the  will  to  conquer  was 
firm  in  the  North.  As  soon  as  the  War  was  over, 
the  demand  for  greater  industrial  development 
made  itself  felt  and  gained  in  strength  when  Re 
construction  came;  but  during  that  period  the 
people  had  to  devote  all  their  energies  to  living 


4  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

day  by  day,  hoping  for  strength  to  endure.  When 
property  was  being  confiscated  under  the  forms  of 
law,  only  to  be  squandered  by  irresponsible  legisla 
tors,  there  was  little  incentive  to  remake  the  indus 
trial  system,  and  the  ventures  of  the  Reconstruction 
government  into  industrial  affairs  were  not  en 
couraging.  Farm  property  in  the  South  —  and  lit 
tle  was  left  except  farm  property  after  the  War  — 
depreciated  in  value  enormously  in  the  decade  fol 
lowing  1860.  Grimly,  sullenly,  the  white  man  of 
the  South  fought  again  to  secure  domination,  this 
time,  however,  of  his  own  section  only  and  not  of 
the  nation.  When  this  had  been  achieved,  a  large 
portion  of  the  population  was  overcome  by  that 
deadly  apathy  so  often  remarked  by  travelers  who 
ventured  to  visit  the  land  as  they  would  have 
visited  Africa.  The  wjute  South  wished  only  to 
be  let  alone.  ' 

During  this  apathetic  period  there  was  some  talk 
of  the  natural  resources  of  the  South;  but  there  was 
little  attempt  on  the  part  of  Southerners  to  utilize 
these  resources.  There  was  talk  of  interesting  for 
eign  capital,  but  little  effective  work  was  done  to 
secure  such  capital.  Many  men  feared  the  new 
problems  which  such  development  might  bring 
in  its  train,  while  others,  more  numerous, 


THE  BACKGROUND  5 

merely  indifferent  or  lukewarm.  Many  of  those 
who  vaguely  wished  for  a  change  did  not  know  how 
to  set  about  realizing  their  desires.  The  few  men 
who  really  worked  to  stimulate  a  quicker  economic 
life  about  1880  had  a  thankless  and  apparently  a 
hopeless  task. 

Yet  one  must  be  careful  not  to  write  of  the 
South  as  if  it  were  a  single  country,  inhabited  by 
a  homogeneous  people.  Historians  and  publicists 
have  spoken,  and  continue  to  speak,  of  "Southern 
opinion  "  and  of  the  "  Southern  attitude  "  as  if  these 
could  b e  defin itely  weighed  and  measured .  No  one 
who  really  knows  the  whole  South  could  be  guilty 
of  such  a  mistake.  The  first  difficulty  is  to  deter 
mine  the  limits  of  the  South.  The  census  classifi 
cation  of  States  is  open  to  objection.  Delaware, 
Maryland,  and  West  Virginia  are  included  in  the 
South,  and  so  is  Kentucky.  Missouri  is  excluded, 
but  a  place  is  made  for  the  new  State  of  Oklahoma. 
As  to  Delaware  and  Maryland,  there  may  be  a  dif 
ference  of  opinion,  though  it  is  difficult  to  j  ustif  y  the 
inclusion  of  the  former.  West  Virginia  is  certainly 
not  Southern,  socially,  politically,  or  economi 
cally.  Kentucky  is  doubtful,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
see  why  Missouri  should  be  excluded  from  any  list 
which  includes  Kentucky.  Oklahoma  is  difficult 


6  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

to  classify.  But,  at  any  rate  the  South  is  a  large 
country,  with  a  great  variety  of  soil,  climate,  and 
population.  As  the  crow  flies,  the  distance  from 
Richmond  to  Memphis,  in  an  adjoining  State,  is 
greater  than  from  Richmond  to  Bangor,  Maine. 
From  Richmond  to  Galveston  is  farther  than  from 
Richmond  to  Omaha  or  Duluth.  Atlanta  is  usu 
ally  considered  to  be  far  down  in  the  South,  and  yet 
the  distance  from  Atlanta  to  Boston  or  Minneapo 
lis  is  less  than  to  El  Paso.  Again,  New  Orleans 
is  nearer  to  Cincinnati  than  to  Raleigh. 

There  were,  moreover,  many  racial  strains  in  the 
South.  The  Scotch-Irish  of  the  Piedmont  in  the 
Carolinas  had,  and  have  yet,  little  in  common  with 
the  French  of  Louisiana.  The  lowlander  of  South 
Carolina  and  the  hill  men  of  Arkansas  differed  in 
more  than  economic  condition.  Even  in  the  same 
State,  different  sections  were  not  in  entire  accord. 
In  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  for  example,  eco 
nomic  conditions  and  traditions  —  and  traditions 
are  jet  a  power  in  the  South  —  differed  greatly  in 
different  sections. 

As  the  years  passed,  apathy  began  to  disappear 
in  some  parts  of  the  South.  Wiser  men  recognized 
that  the  old  had  gone  never  to  return.  Men  began 
to  face  the  inevitable.  Instead  of  brooding  upon 


THE  BACKGROUND  7 

their  grievances,  they  adjusted  themselves,  more 
or  less  successfully,  to  the  new  economic  and  social 
order,  and  by  acting  in  harmony  with  it  found  that 
progress  was  not  so  impossible  as  they  had  sup 
posed.  White  planters  found  that  the  net  returns 
from  their  farms  on  which  they  themselves  had 
labored  were  greater  than  when  a  larger  force  of  ne 
groes  had  been  employed;  shrewd  men  began  to  put 
their  scanty  savings  together  to  take  advantage  of 
convenient  water  power.  Securing  the  bare  neces 
sities  of  life  was  no  longer  a  difficult  problem  for 
every  one.  Men  began  to  find  pleasure  in  activity 
rather  than  in  mere  passivity  or  obstruction. 

Somehow,  somewhere,  sometime,  a  new  hope 
fulness  was  born  and  this  new  spirit  • —  evidence  of 
new  life  —  became  embodied  in  "the  New  South." 
The  expression  is  said  to  have  been  used  first  by 
General  Adam  Badeau  when  stationed  in  South 
Carolina,  but  the  New  South  of  which  he  spoke  was 
not  the  New  South  as  it  is  understood  today.  Many 
others  have  used  the  term  loosely  to  signify  any 
change  in  economic  or  social  conditions  which  they 
had  discovered.  The  first  man  to  use  the  expres 
sion  in  a  way  which  sent  it  vibrating  through  the 
whole  nation  was  Henry  W.  Grady.  the  gifted  edi 
tor  of  the  Atlanta  Constitution.  In  a  speech  made 


8  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

in  1886  by  invitation  of  the  New  England  Society 
of  New  York  City,  he  took  for  his  theme  "the  New 
South"  and  delivered  an  oration  which,  judged  by 
its  effects,  had  some  of  the  marks  of  greatness. 
"The  South,"  he  said,  "has  nothing  for  which  to 
apologize.  She  believes  that  the  late  struggle  be 
tween  the  States  was  war  and  not  rebellion,  revolu 
tion  and  not  conspiracy."  He  went  on,  however, 
to  express  the  feeling  that  the  outcome  had  been 
for  the  best,  and  painted  a  picture  of  the  new  spir 
it  of  the  South,  a  trifle  enthusiastic  perhaps,  but 
still  recognizable. 

Today  a  New  South  may  be  said  to  be  every 
where  apparent.  The  Old  South  still  exists  in 
nooks  and  corners  of  many  States,  it  is  true:  there 
are  communities,  counties,  groups  of  counties, 
which  cling  to  the  old  ideas.  In  the  hearts  of 
thousands  of  men  and  women  the  Old  South  is  en 
shrined,  and  there  is  no  room  for  the  new;  but  the 
South  as  a  whole  is  a  New  South,  marked  by  a 
spirit  of  hopefulness,  a  belief  in  the  future,  and 
a  desire  to  take  a  fuller  part  in  the  life  of  the  na 
tion.  To  trace  the  development  of  the  new  spirit 
and  to  discuss  its  manifestations  is  the  purpose  of 
this  book. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  .CONFEDERATE   SOLDIER   TAKES   CHARGE 

As  the  year  1877  was  beginning,  the  carpetbag 
governments  in  nine  of  the  Southern  States  had 
been  already  overthrown.  In  two  other  States 
were  two  sets  of  officers,  one  of  which  represented 
the  great  mass  of  the  whites  while  the  other  was 
based  upon  negro  suffrage  and  was  supported  by 
Federal  bayonets.  Both  sides  seemed  determined, 
and  trouble  was  expected.  The  Republican  con 
testants  in  Florida  had  already  yielded  to  a  deci 
sion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  but  in  . 
South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  the  Republican 
claimants  held  on  until  the  orders  to  withdraw  the 
troops  were  given  in  April,  1877.  The  withdrawal 
of  the  troops  marked  the  definite  end  of  Recon 
struction.  The  Democratic  claimants  then  took 
undisputed  possession  of  the  executive  and  legis 
lative  departments  of  these  States.  The  native 
whites  were  again  in  entire  charge  of  all  the  States 


10  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

which  had  seceded.  They  now  had  the  task  of 
rebuilding  the  commonwealths  shattered  by  war 
and  by  the  aftermath  of  war.  A  new  era  for  the 
South  had  dawned,  and  here  properly  begins  the 
history  of  the  New  South. 

The  first  and  most  important  problem,  as  the 
white  South  saw  it,  was  the  maintenance^of  jwhite 
supremacy  which  had  been  gained  with  so  much 
difficulty.  In  only  three  States  —  South  Carolina, 
Mississippi,  and  Louisiana  —  were  there  negro  ma 
jorities.  Obviously,  if  the  whites  could  be  in 
duced  or  coerced  to  stand  together,  they  could 
continue  to  control  the  governments  in  eight  of  the 
seceding  States.  The  negro  population,  however, 
was  not  distributed  uniformly  over  any  of  these 
States,  so  that,  no  matter  how  great  the  white 
preponderance  in  the  State  as  a  whole,  there  were 
counties  or  other  civil  divisions  where  negroes  were 
in  the  majority.  This  meant  that  the  issue  of 
white  supremacy  was  present  in  every  State,  for 
the  negro  majorities  in  such  counties  could  elect 
the  local  officers  and  control  the  local  governments. 

To  attain  a  political  consolidation  of  the  white 
population  all  other  issues  must  be  subordinated. 
Differences  of  opinion  and  judgment  must  be  held 
in  abeyance.  No  question  upon  which  white  men 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE    11 

might  seriously  disagree  must  be  placed  in  the 
party  platform,  if  any  way  to  avoid  such  insertion 
could  be  found.  If  by  any  chance  the  majority 
adopted  a  course  obnoxious  to  the  minority,  the 
decision  must  be  accepted  loyally  if  not  cheerfully, 
and  the  full  white  vote  must  be  cast.  Objection 
to  a  candidate  or  measure  must  not  be  expressed 
at  the  ballot  box.  Personal  ambition  must  be  re 
strained,  and  weakness  and  even  unfitness  in  a 
candidate  must  be  overlooked  for  the  sake  of 
white  solidarity. 

The  task  of  creating  a  permanently  solid  South 
was  not  easy.  The  Southerner  had  always  been 
an  individualist,  freely  exercising  his  right  to  vote 
independently,  engaging  in  sharp  political  con 
tests  before  1861,  and  even  during  the  War.  The 
Confederate  Congress  wrangled  impotently  while 
Grant  was  thundering  at  the  gates  of  Richmond. 
So  strong  was  the  memory  of  past  differences,  that 
old  party  designations  were  avoided.  The  politi 
cal  organization  to  which  allegiance  was  demand 
ed  was  generally  called  the  Conservative  party, 
and  the  Republican  party  was  universally  called 
the  Radical  party.  The  term  Conservative  was 
adopted  partly  as  a  contrast,  partly  because  the 
peace  party  had  been  so  called  during  the  War,  and 


12  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

especially  because  the  name  Democrat  was  obnox 
ious  to  so  many  old  Whigs.  It  was  not  until  1906 
that  the  term  Conservative  was  officially  dropped 
from  the  title  of  the  dominant  party  in  Alabama. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  men  continued  to  turn 
for  leadership  to  those  who  had  led  in  battle  and,  to 
a  less  extent,  to  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
civil  government  of  the  Confederacy.  But  for  the 
humiliations  of  Reconstruction,  some  of  these  men 
might  have  been  discredited,  but  the  bitter  experi 
ences  of  those  years  had  restored  them  to  popular 
favor.  As  the  Federal  soldier  marched  out  of  the 
public  buildings  everywhere,  the  Confederate  sol 
dier  marched  in.  These  men  had  led  in  the  contest 
against  the  scalawags  and  the  carpetbaggers  and 
many  had  suffered  thereby.  Now  they  came  into 
their  own.  In  some  States  the  organization  of 
voters  was  almost  military. 

During  the  first  years  after  the  downfall  of  the 
Reconstruction  governments  the  task  of  consolidat 
ing  the  white  South  was  measurably  achieved.  As 
some  one  flippantly  put  the  case,  there  came  to  be 
in  many  sections  "two  kinds  of  people  —  Demoj 
crats  and  negroes."  It  was  the  general  feeling  on 
the  part  oll  the  whites  that  to  fail  to  vote  was  shame 
ful,  to  scratch  a  ticket  was  a  crime,  and  to  attempt 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE    13 

to  organize  the  negroes  was  treason  to  one's  race. 
The  "Confederate  brigadier"  sounded  the  rallying 
cry  at  every  election,  and  a  military  record  came 
to  be  almost  a  requisite  for  political  preferment. 
Men's  eyes  were  turned  to  the  past,  and  on  every 
stump  were  recounted  again  and  again  the  horrors 
of  Reconstruction  and  the  valiant  deeds  of  the 
Confederate  soldiers.  What  a  candidate  had  done 
in  the  past  in  another  field  seemed  more  important 
even  than  his  actual  qualifications  for  the  office  to 
which  he  aspired.  A  study  of  the  Congressional 
Record  or  of  lists  of  state  officers  proves  the  truth 
of  this  statement.  In  1882,  fourteen  of  the  twenty- 
two  United  States  Senators  from  the  seceding 
States  had  military  records  and  three  had  been 
civil  officers  of  the  Confederacy.  Several  States 
had  solid  delegations  of  ex-Confederate  soldiers  in 
both  houses.  When  one  reads  the  proceedings  of 
Congress,  he  finds  the  names  of  Vance  and  Ransom, 
Hampton  and  Butler,  Gordon  and  Wheeler,  Harris 
and  Bate,  Cockrell  and  Vest,  Walthall  and  Col- 
quitt,  Morgan  and  Gibson,  and  dozens  of  other 
Confederate  officers. 

The  process  of  unifying  the  white  South  was 
not  universally  successful,  however.  Here  and 
there  were  Republican  islands  in  a  Democratic  or 


14  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Conservative  sea.  The  largest  and  most  impor 
tant  exception  was  the  Appalachianjpouth,  divided 
among  eight  different  States.  It  is  a  large  region, 
to  this  day  thinly  populated  and  lacking  in  means 
of  communication  with  the  outside  world.  Though 
it  has  some  bustling  cities,  thriving  towns,  and 
prosperous  communities,  the  Appalachian  South 
today  is  predominantly  rural.  In  the  216  counties 
in  this  region  or  its  foothills,  there  were  in  1910 
only  43  towns  with  more  than  2500  inhabitants. 

This  Appalachian  region  had  been  settled  by 
emigrants  from  the  lowlands.  Some  of  them  were 
of  the  thriftless  sort  who  were  forced  from  the 
better  lands  in  the  East  by  the  inexorable  working 
of  economic  law.  By  far  the  greater  part,  however, 
were  of  the  same  stock  as  the  restless  pioneers 
who  poured  over  the  mountains  to  flood  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley.  Students  of  the  mountain  people 
maintain  that  so  small  an  accident  as  the  breaking 
of  a  linchpin  fixed  one  family  forever  in  a  moun 
tain  cove,  while  relatives  went  on  to  become  the 
builders  of  new  States  in  the  interior.  Cut  off 
from  the  world  in  these  mountains,  there  have  been 
preserved  to  this  day  many  of  the  idioms,  folk 
songs,  superstitions,  manners,  customs,  and  habits 
of  mind  of  Stuart  England,  as  they  were  brought 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE    15 

over  by  the  early  colonists.  The  steep  farms 
afforded  a  scanty  living,  and  though  the  cattle 
i'ound  luscious  pasturage  during  the  summer,  they 
were  half  starved  during  the  winter.  If  by  chance 
the  mountaineers  had  a  surplus  of  any  product, 
there  was  no  one  to  whom  they  might  sell  it.  They 
lived  almost  without  the  convenience  of  coinage  as 
a  means  of  exchange.  Naturally  in  such  a  society 
there  was  no  place  for  slaves,  and  to  this  day  ne 
groes  are  not  welcome  in  many  mountain  counties. 
Hut  though  these  mountain  people  have  missed 
Contact  with  the  outside  world  and  have  been  de 
prived  of  the  stimulus  of  new  ideas,  they  seldom 
^ive  evidence  of  anything  that  can  fairly  be  classed 
as  degeneracy.  Ignorance,  illiteracy,  and  suspend 
ed  or  arrested  development  the  traveler  of  today 
will  find  among  them,  and  actions  which  will  shock 
his  present-day  standards;  but  these  same  actions 
would  hardly  have  shocked  his  own  father's  great 
grandfather.  These  isolated  mountaineers  have 
been  aptly  called  "our  contemporary  ancestors." 

The  same  people,  it  is  true,  had  poured  out  of 
their  cabins  to  meet  Ferguson  at  King's  Mountain; 
they  had  followed  Jackson  to  New  Orleans  and 
to  Florida  and  they  had  felt  the  influence  of  the 
wave  of  nationalism  which  swept  the  country  after 


16  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

the  War  of  1812.  But  back  to  their  mountains 
they  had  gone,  and  the  great  current  of  national 
progress  swept  by  them.  The  movement  toward 
sectionalism,  which  developed  after  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  had  left  them  cold.  So  the  moun 
taineers  held  to  the  Union.  They  did  not  volun 
teer  freely  for  the  Confederacy,  and  they  resisted 
conscription.  How  many  were  enlisted  in  the 
Union  armies  it  is  difficult  to  discover,  certainly 
over  100,000.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
these  people  became  Republicans  and  have  so 
continued  in  their  allegiance. 

Another  element  in  the  population  having  great 
influence  in  the  South  —  in  North  Carolina,  at 
V/  least  —  was  the^Socje^y^of^Friejids.  It  was  strong 
in  both  the  central  and  the  eastern  sections.  Many, 
but  by  no  means  all,  of  the  Quakers  opposed  the 
Civil  War  and,  after  peace  came,  opposed  the  men 
who  had  been  prominent  in  the  War,  that  is,  the 
dominant  party.  In  spite  of  the  social  stigma  at 
taching  to  Republicanism,  many  of  the  Quakers 
have  persisted  in  their  membership  in  that  party  to 
the  present  day.  In  all  the  seceding  States  there 
was  a  Union  element  in  1861,  and,  while  most  of  the 
men  composing  it  finally  went  into  the  War  with 
zeal,  there  were  individuals  who  resisted  stoutly. 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE    17 

During  the  War  they  were  abused  without  stint, 
but  this  criticism  had  only  the  effect  of  making 
them  more  stubborn.  They  naturally  became  Re 
publicans  after  the  War  and  furnished  some  of 
the  votes  which  made  Reconstruction  possible. 
With  these  may  be  classed  the  few  Northern  men 
who  remained  in  the  South  after  the  downfall  of 
the  Reconstruction  governments. 

There  was  another  class  of  people  in  the  South, 
some  of  whom  had  been  rabid  secessionists  and 
whose  Republicanism  had  no  other  foundation 
than  a  desire  for  the  loaves  and  fishes,  The  sala 
ries  attached  to  some  of  the  Federal  offices  seemed 
enormous  at  that  time  and,  before  the  prohibition 
wave  swept  the  South,  there  were  in  the  revenue 
service  thousands  of  minor  appointments  for  the 
faithful.  These  deputy  marshals,  "storekeepers 
and  gangers,"  and  petty  postmasters  attempted 
to  keep  up  a  local  organization.  The  collectors  of 
internal  revenue,  United  States  marshals,  other  offi 
cers  of  the  Federal  courts,  and  the  postmasters  in 
the  larger  towns  controlled  these  men  and  therefore 
the  state  organizations.  These  Federal  officials .  / 
broke  the  unanimity  of  the  white  South,  and  they 
were  supported  by  thousands  of  negroes.  Some 
individuals  among  them  were  shrewd  politicians, 


.  18  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

but  the  contest  was  unequal  from  the  beginning. 
On  one  side  was  intelligence,  backed  by  loyal  fol 
lowers  fiercely  determined  to  rule.  On  the  other 
was  a  leadership  on  the  whole  less  intelligent,  cer 
tainly  more  selfish,  with  followers  who  were  ig 
norant  and  susceptible  to  cajolery  or  intimidation. 
Before  the  downfall  of  the  Reconstruction  govern 
ments,  and  in  the  first  few  years  afterward,  there 
was  much  intimidation  of  negroes  who  wished 
to  vote.  Threats  of  loss  of  employment,  eviction 
from  house  or  plantation,  or  refusal  of  credit  were 
frequent.  In  many  sections  such  measures  were 
enough,  and  Democrats  were  ordinarily  chosen  at 
the  polls.  Where  the  negroes  were  in  a  larger  ma 
jority,  stronger  measures  were  adopted.  Around 
election  time  armed  bands  of  whites  would  some 
times  patrol  the  roads  wearing  some  special  badge 
or  garment.  Men  would  gallop  past  the  houses  of 
negroes  at  night,  firing  guns  or  pistols  into  the 
air  and  occasionally  into  the  roofs  of  the  houses. 
Negroes  talking  politics  were  occasionally  visited 
and  warned  —  sometimes  with  physical  violence 
-  to  keep  silent.  On  election  day  determined  men 
with  rifles  or  shotguns,  ostensibly  intending  to  go 
hunting  after  they  had  voted,  gathered  around 
the  polls.  An  occasional  random  shot  might  kick 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE     19 

up  the  dust  near  an  approaching  negro.  Men 
actually  or  apparently  the  worse  for  liquor  might 
stagger  around,  seeking  an  excuse  for  a  fight.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  among  the  negroes  the  im 
pression  that  it  was  unwise  to  attempt  to  vote 
gained  ground. 

Less  crude  but  no  less  effective  methods  were 
employed  later.  As  candidates  or  party  organiza-  t 
tions  furnished  the  ballots,  the  "tissue  ballot" 
came  into  use.  Half  a  dozen  of  these  might  easily 
be  dropped  into  the  box  at  one  time.  If  the 
surplus  ballots  were  withdrawn  by  a  blindfolded 
official,  the  difference  in  length  or  in  the  texture  or 
quality  of  the  ballot  made  possible  the  withdrawal 
of  an  undue  proportion  of  Republican  votes.  Usu 
ally  separate  boxes  were  supplied  for  different  sets 
of  officers,  and  it  was  often  provided  that  a  ballot 
in  the  wrong  box  was  void.  An  occasional  inten 
tional  shifting  of  boxes  thus  caused  many  illiterate 
negroes  to  throw  away  their  votes.  This  scheme 
reached  its  climax  in  the  "eight  box  law"  of  South 
Carolina  which  made  illiterate  voting  Ineffective 
without  aid.  Immediately  after  any  literate  Re 
publican,  white  or  black,  left  the  polling  place  the 
boxes  were  shifted,  and  the  illiterates  whose  tickets 
he  had  carefully  arranged  deposited  their  ballots 


20  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

in  the  wrong  boxes.  White  boys  of  eighteen,  if 
well  grown,  sometimes  voted,  while  a  young  negro 
unable  to  produce  any  evidence  of  his  age  had 
difficulty  in  proving  the  attainment  of  his  majority. 
In  some  precincts  illiterate  Republicans  were  ap 
pointed  officers  of  elections,  and  then  the  vote  was 
juggled  shamelessly.  A  study  of  election  returns 
of  some  counties  of  the  black  belt  shows  occasional 
Democratic  majorities  greater  than  the  total  white 
population.  The  same  tricks  which  were  so  long 
practiced  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  were 
successful  in  the  South. 

Conditions  such  as  these  were  not  prevalent  over 
the  entire  South.  In  a  large  proportion  of  the  vot 
ing  precincts  elections  were  as  fair  as  anywhere  in 
the  United  States;  but  it  may  be  safely  said  that 
in  few  counties  where  the  negroes  approached  or 
exceeded  fifty  per  cent  of  the  total  population 
were  elections  conducted  with  anything  more  than 
a  semblance  of  fairness.  Yet  in  some  sections  the 
odds  were  too  great,  or  else  the  whites  lacked  the 
resolution  to  carry  out  such  extensive  informal 
disfranchisement.  For  years  North  and  South 
Carolina  each  sent  at  least  one  negro  member  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  and,  but  for  flagrant 
gerrymandering,  might  have  sent  more.  Indeed 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE    21 

negro  prosecuting  attorneys  were  not  unknown, 
and  many  of  the  black  counties  had  negro  officers. 
Some  States,  such  as  North  Carolina,  gave  up  local 
self-government  almost  entirely.  The  Legislature 
appointed  the  justices  of  the  peace  in  every  county, 
and  these  elected  both  the  commissioners  who  con 
trolled  the  finances  of  the  county  and  also  the 
board  of  education  which  appointed  the  school 
committeemen.  Judges  were  elected  by  the  State 
as  a  whole  and  held  courts  in  all  the  counties  in 
turn.  To  this  day,  a  Superior  Court  judge  sits  only 
six  months  in  one  district  and  then  moves  on  to  an 
other.  Other  States  gave  up  local  government  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  while  still  others  sought  to 
lessen  the  negro  vote  by  strict  registration  laws 
and  by  the  imposition  of  poll  taxes. 

In  many  sections  the  negro  ceased  to  make  any 
attempt  to  vote,  and  the  Republican  organization 
became  a  skeleton,  if  indeed  it  continued  at  all. 
There  was  always  the  possibility  of  a  revival,  how 
ever,  and  after  1876  the  North  often  threatened 
Federal  control  of  elections.  The  possibility  of 
negro  rule  was  therefore  only  suspended  and  not 
destroyed;  it  might  at  any  time  be  restored  by 
force.  The  possibility  of  the  negro's  holding  the 
balance  of  power  seemed  dangerous  and  ultimately 


22  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

led  to  attempts  to  disfranchise  him  by  law,  which 
will  be  considered  in  another  chapter. 

The  relation  of  the  races  was  not  the  only  ques 
tion  which  confronted  the  whites  when  they  re 
gained  control  of  the  state  governments .  The  prob 
lem  of  finance  was  equally  fundamental.  The  in 
crease  in  the  total  debt  of  the  seceding  States  had 
been  enormous.  The  difference  between  the  debts 
of  these  States  (excluding  Texas)  in  1860  and  in  the 
year  in  which  they  became  most  involved  was 
nearly  $135,000,000. '  In  proportion  to  the  total 
wealth  of  these  States,  this  debt  was  extremely  high. 

Not  all  of  this  increase  was  due  to  carpetbag 
government.  While,  of  course,  the  debts  incurred 
for  military  purposes  had  been  repudiated  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  several 
of  the  States  had  issued  bonds  for  other  purposes 
during  the  War  or  immediately  afterwards  before 
the  advent  of  the  Reconstruction  governments. 
There  were  other  millions  of  unpaid  interest  on  all 
varieties  of  debts  incurred  before  or  after  1860. 
The  Reconstruction  debts  had  been  incurred  for 
various  purposes,  but  bonds  issued  ostensibly  to  aid 

1  See  W.  A.  Scott,  The  Repudiation  of  State  Debts,  p.  276.  Texas 
had  practically  no  debt  when  it  passed  under  Reconstruction  govern 
ment,  but  added  $4,500,000  in  the  period.  The  total  increase  in  the 
debt  of  all  these  Southern  States  was  then  nearly  $140,000,000. 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE    23 

in  building  railroads,  canals,  or  levees  made  up  the 
greater  part  of  the  total.  These  bonds,  however, 
had  been  sold  at  a  large  discount,  and  only  a  small 
part  of  the  money  realized  was  applied  to  actual 
construction. 

Some  of  the  States  had  escaped  almost  entirely 
any  considerable  increase  of  debt;  others  were  bur 
dened  far  beyond  their  ability  to  pay,  especially  as 
property  valuations  had  declined  nearly  one-half. r 

The  wholesale  repudiation  of  their  debts  injured 
the  credit  of  all  the  Southern  States,  and  they  have 
been  loudly  denounced  for  their  action.  Their 
spokesmen  have  justified  their  procedure  in  regard 
to  the  bonds  issued  by  the  carpetbag  legislatures 
on  the  ground  that  they  were  voted  by  venal  gov 
ernments  imposed  by  military  force;  that  many  of 
the  bonds  were  fraudulent  on  their  face;  and  that 
those  who  purchased  them  at  a  great  discount  were 
simply  gambling  upon  the  chance  that  the  govern 
ments  issuing  them  would  endure;  that  the  greater 
part  of  these  bonds  were  stolen  by  the  officers;  and 
that  little  or  no  benefit  came  to  the  State.  Not  all 
of  the  bonds  which  were  repudiated  or  scaled  down, 
however,  belonged  to  this  class.  Many  were  un 
doubtedly  valid  obligations  on  the  part  of  the 

1  See  page  227  ff. 


24  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

States.  The  repudiation  of  these  bonds  was  ex 
cused  on  the  ground  that  they  were  generally  is 
sued  to  aid  railroads  which  had  been  practically 
seized  by  the  Confederate  or  the  United  States  gov 
ernments  and  had  been  worn  out  for  their  bene 
fit;  that  interest  could  not  be  paid  during  the  war; 
and  that  war  and  the  Reconstruction  Acts  had  so 
reduced  property  values  that  payment  of  the  full 
amount  was  impossible.  The  last  reason  is  true  of 
some  States,  though  not  of  all.  The  prompt  pay 
ment  of  interest  on  the  reduced  indebtedness  has 
done  much  to  restore  the  credit  of  the  South,  and 
the  bonds  of  some  States  now  sell  above  par. 

Extravagance  had  helped  to  overthrow  the  car 
petbag  regime.  The  new  governments  were  neces 
sarily  forced  to  be  economical.  Expenditures  of 
all  kinds  were  lessened.  Government  was  reduced 
to  its  lowest  terms,  and  the  salaries  of  state  officers 
were  fixed  at  ridiculously  small  figures.  Inade 
quate  school  taxes  were  levied ;  the  asylums  for  the 
insane,  though  kept  alive,  could  not  take  care  of  all 
who  should  have  been  admitted;  appropriations  for 
higher  education,  if  made  at  all,  were  small;  there 
was  little  or  no  social  legislation.  The  politicians 
taught  the  people  that  low  taxes  were  the  greatest 
possible  good  and,  when  prosperity  began  to  return 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE    25 

and  a  heavier  burden  of  taxation  might  easily  have 
been  borne,  the  belief  that  the  efficiency  of  a  gov 
ernment  was  measured  by  its  parsimony  had  be 
come  a  fixed  idea.  There  was  little  scandal  any 
where.  No  governments  in  American  history  have 
been  conducted  with  more  economy  and  more 
fidelity  than  the  governments  of  the  Southern 
States  during  the  first  years  after  the  Reconstruc 
tion  period.  A  few  treasurers  defaulted,  but  in 
most  cases  their  difficulties  rose  from  financial  in 
competence  rather  than  from  dishonesty,  for  a  good 
soldier  did  not  necessarily  make  a  good  treasurer. 
Few  fortunes  were  founded  on  state  contracts. 
The  public  buildings  erected  were  honestly  built 
and  were  often  completed  within  the  limits  of  the 
original  appropriations.  So  small  an  amount  was 
allowed  that  there  would  have  been  little  to  steal, 
even  had  the  inclination  been  present. 

The  decline  in  the  prices  of  agricultural  products 
after  1875  made  living  harder.  The  Greenback 
agitation1  found  some  followers,  and  in  a  few  scat 
tered  rural  districts  Greenbackers  or  Greenback 
Democrats  were  nominated.  In  a  few  districts  the 
white  men  ventured  to  run  two  tickets,  and  in  a 

1  See  The  Agrarian  Crusade,  by  Solon  J.  Buck  (in  The  Chronicles  of 
America). 


26  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

few  cases  the  Greenback  candidate  won.  This 
activity  was  a  precursor  of  the  agrarian  revolt 
which  later  divided  the  South.  There  were  also 
some  Republican  tickets  with  qualifying  words  in 
tended  to  catch  votes,  but  they  had  little  success. 
Some  strong  men  were  sent  to  Congress,  a  very 
large  proportion  of  whom  had  seen  service  in  the 
Confederate  army.  Their  presence  aroused  many 
sneers  at  "rebel  brigadiers"  and  an  immense 
amount  of  "bloody  shirt"  oratory.  They  accom 
plished  little  for  their  section  or  for  the  nation,  as 
they  were  always  on  the  defensive  and  could  hardly 
have  been  expected  to  have  any  consuming  love 
for  the  Union,  in  which  they  had  been  kept  by 
force.  They  were  frequently  taunted  in  debate  in 
the  hope  that  indiscreet  answers  would  furnish 
campaign  material  for  use  in  the  North.  Some 
times  they  failed  to  control  their  tempers  and  their 
tongues  and  played  into  the  hands  of  their  op 
ponents.  They  advocated  no  great  reforms  and 
showed  little  political  vision.  Th^v_chmg _tojthe 
time-honored  g^cjbrines  of  the  Democratic  parly  - 
tariff  for  revenue  only,  opposition  to  sumptuary 
laws,  economy  in  expenditures^  and  abolition  of  the 
internal  revenue  taxes  —  and  they  made  ponder 
ous  speeches  upon  the  Constitution,  "viewing  with 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE    27 

alarm"  the  encroachments  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  upon  the  sphere  of  action  marked  out  for 
the  States. 

Partly  because  of  constitutional  objections,  part 
ly  because  of  fear  of  Federal  supervision  of  the 
administration  of  the  measure,  a  majority  of  the 
Southern  representatives  opposed  the  Blair  Bill, 
which  might  have  hastened  the  progress  of  their 
section.  This  measure,  now  almost  forgotten,  was 
much  discussed  between  1882  and  1890  when  it  was 
finally  shelved.  It  provided  for  national  aid  to 
education  out  of  the  surplus  revenues  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government,  the  distribution  to  be  made  in 
proportion  to  illiteracy.  Though  the  South  would 
have  received  a  large  share  of  this  money,  which  it 
sorely  needed  for  education,  the  experience  of  the 
South  with  Federal  supervision  had  not  been  pleas 
ant,  and  many  feared  that  the  measure  might  re 
sult  in  another  Freedmen's  Bureau.1  Not  all 
Southerners,  however,  were  opposed  to  the  project. 
Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  agent  of  the  Peabody  Fund, 
did  valiant  service  for  the  bill,  and  some  mem 
bers  of  Congress  were  strong  advocates  of  the 
measure.  Today  we  see  a  measure  for  national 

1  See  The  Sequel  of  Appomattox,  by  Walter  Lynwood  Fleming  (in 
The  Chronicles  of  America). 


28  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

aid  to  education  fathered  by  Southerners  and  al 
most  unanimously  supported  by  their  colleagues. 

Though  rotation  in  office  was  the  rule  in  the  rep 
resentation  in  the  House,  the  policy  of  reflecting 
Senators  was  generally  followed,  and  some  of  them 
served  long  periods.  Looking  upon  themselves  as 
ambassadors  of  their  States  to  an  unfriendly  court, 
they  were  always  dignified  and  often  austere.  As 
time  went  on,  their  honesty ,  old-fashioned  courtesy, 
and  amiable  social  qualities  gained  for  many  the 
respect  and  affectionate  esteem  of  their  Northern 
colleagues.  Many  strong  friendships  sprang  up, 
and  through  these  personal  relationships  occasion 
al  bits  of  patronage  and  items  of  legislation  were 
granted.  Often,  it  is  said,  politicians  who  were  ac 
customed  to  assail  one  another  in  public  sought 
each  other's  society  and  were  the  best  of  friends 
in  private.  These  Southern  men  were  almost  in 
variably  a  frugal  lot  who  lived  from  necessity  with 
in  their  salaries  and  used  no  questionable  means 
of  increasing  their  incomes. 

The  election  of  Cleveland  in  1884  gave  to  the 
South  its  first  real  participation  in  national  affairs 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Thomas  F.  Bayard 
of  Delaware,  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  of  Mississippi,  and 
A.  H.  Garland  of  Arkansas  were  chosen  for  the 


CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER  TAKES  CHARGE  29 

Cabinet,  from  which  the  scholarly  Lamar  was 
transferred  to  the  Supreme  Court.  John  G.  Carlisle 
of  Kentucky  was  Speaker,  and  Roger  Q.  Mills  of 
Texas  became  Chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  of  the  House  to  succeed  William  R. 
Morrison.  A  fair  share,  if  not  more,  of  the  more 
important  diplomatic,  consular,  and  administrative 
appointments  went  to  Southerners.  The  South 
began  to  feel  that  it  was  again  a  part  of  the  Union. 
However,  though  Cleveland  had  shown  his  friend 
liness  to  their  section,  the  Southern  politicians, 
usually  intensely  partisan,  could  not  appreciate  the 
President's  attitude  toward  the  civil  service  and 
other  questions,  and  his  bluntness  offended  many 
of  them.  They  followed  him  on  the  tariff  but  op 
posed  him  on  most  other  questions,  for  his  theory 
of  Democracy  and  theirs  diverged,  and  his  kindly 
attitude  was  later  repaid  with  ingratitude. 

During  the  period  in  which  the  "rebel  briga 
diers"  had  controlled  their  States  a  new  generation 
had  arisen  which  began  to  make  itself  felt  between 
1885  and  1890.  The  Grange  had  tried  to  teach  the 
farmers  to  think  of  themselves  as  a  class,  and  the 
skilled  workmen  in  a  few  occupations,  in  the  bor 
der  States  particularly,  had  been  organized.  The 
Greenback  craze  had  created  a  distrust  of  the 


30  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

capitalists  of  the  East.  The  fear  of  negro  domina 
tion  was  no  longer  so  overmastering, and  the  natural 
ambition  of  the  younger  men  began  to  show  itself 
in  factional  contests.  Younger  men  were  coveting 
the  places  held  by  the  old  war-horses  and  were  be 
ginning  to  talk  of  cliques  and  rings.  The  Farmers' 
Alliance  was  spreading  like  wildfire,  and  its  mem 
bers  were  expounding  doctrines  which  seemed  rank 
treason  to  the  elderly  gentlemen  whose  influence 
had  once  been  so  potent.  It  is  now  clear  that  their 
fall  from  power  was  inevitable,  though  they  refused 
to  believe  it  possible. 


fc^/v,.-.         I  '%HJ*VJ 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN 

PRACTICALLY  all  the  farmers  in  the  South,  like  those 
of  the  West,  were  chronically  in  debt,  and  after 
1870  the  general  tendency  of  the  prices  of  agricul 
tural  products  was  down  ward .  In  spite  of  largely 
increased  acreage  —  partly,  to  be  sure,  because  of 
it  —  the  total  returns  from  the  larger  crops  were 
hardly  so  great  as  had  been  received  from  a  much 
smaller  cultivated  area.  The  Southern  farmer  be 
gan  to  feel  helpless  and  hopeless.  Though  usually 
suspicious  of  every  movement  coming  from  the 
North,  he  turned  readily  to  the  organization  of  the 
Patrons  of  Husbandry,  better  known  as  the  Grange. 
In  fact,  the  hopeless  apathy  of  the  Southern  farmer 
observed  by  Oliver  Hudson  Kelley,  an  agent  of  the 
Bureau  of  Agriculture,  is  said  to  have  determined 
him  to  found  the  order.  In  spite  of  the  turmoil 
of  Reconstruction,  the  organization  appeared  in 
South  Carolina  and  Mississippi  in  1871.  Tennessee, 

31 


32  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Missouri,  and  Kentucky  had  already  been  invadedc 
During  1872  and  1873,  the  order  spread  rapidly  ID 
all  the  States  which  may  be  called  Southern.  The 
highest  number  reached  was  in  the  latter  part  of 
1875  when  more  than  6400  local  granges  were 
reported  in  the  States  which  had  seceded;  and 
in  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Delaware,  West  Virginia, 
and  Missouri  there  were  nearly  4000  more.  The 
total  membership  in  the  seceding  States  was  more 
than  210,000  and  including  the  border  States,  over 
355,000.  Since  negroes  were  not  admitted,  the 
proportion  of  the  total  white  agricultural  popula 
tion  in  the  Grange  was  perhaps  as  high  in  the 
South  as  in  any  other  part  of  the  Union.  In  the 
years  that  followed,  the  order  underwent  the  same 
disintegration  in  the  South  as  elsewhere. 

As  a  class  the  Southern  Grangers  did  not  take  an 
active  part  in  politics.  The  overshadowing  ques 
tion  of  the  position  of  their  States  in  the  Union 
and  the  desire  to  preserve  white  supremacy  pre 
vented  any  great  independent  movement.  In  a 
few  instances,  men  ran  for  Congress  as  Independ 
ents  or  as  Greenbackers,  and  in  some  cases  they 
were  elected;  but  the  Southern  farmers  were  not 
yet  ready  to  break  away  from  the  organization 
which  had  delivered  them  from  negro  rule.  There 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    S3 

was  not  at  that  time  in  the  South  the  same  op 
position  to  railroads  that  prevailed  in  the  West. 
The  need  of  railroads  was  felt  so  keenly  that  the 
practice  of  baiting  them  had  not  become  popu 
lar.  Some  railroad  legislation  was  passed,  largely 
through  Granger  influence,  but  it  was  not  yet  radi 
cal.  Nevertheless  the  Granger  movement  was  by 
no  means  without  permanent  influence.  It  helped 
to  develop  class  consciousness;  it  demonstrated  that 
the  Western  and  the  Southern  farmer  had  some 
interests  in  common;  and  it  also  implanted  in 
people's  minds  the  idea  that  legislation  of  an  eco 
nomic  character  was  desirable.  Heretofore  the 
Southern  farmer,  so  far  as  he  had  thought  at  all 
about  the  relation  of  the  State  to  industry,  had 
been  a  believer  in  laissez  faire.  Now  he  began  to 
consider  whether  legislation  might  not  be  the  rem 
edy  for  poverty.  Out  of  this  serious  attention  to 
the  needs  of  the  farmer  other  organizations  were 
to  arise  and  to  build  upon  the  foundations  laid  by 
the  Grange. 

About  1875  there  appeared  in  Texas  and  other 
States  local  organizations  of  farmers,  known  as 
Farmers'  Alliances,  and  in  1879  a  Grand  State  Al 
liance  was  formed  in  Texas.  The  purposes  were 
similar  to  those  set  forth  by  the  Grange.  In 


34  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Arkansas  appeared  the  Agricultural  Wheel  and  the 
Brothers  of  Freedom,  which  were  soon  consoli 
dated.  The  Farmers'  Union  of  Louisiana  and  the 
Alliance  of  Texas  were  also  united  under  the  name 
of  the  National  Farmers'  Alliance  and  Cooperative 
Union  of  America.  This  was  soon  united  with  the 
Arkansas  Wheel,  which  had  crossed  state  lines. 

A  session  of  the  National  Alliance  was  held  at 
St.  Louis  in  1889  with  delegates  present  from  every 
Southern  State,  except  West  Virginia,  and  from 
some  of  the  Middle  Western  States.  The  National 
Assembly  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  was  also  held  in 
St.  Louis  at  this  time,  and  a  joint  declaration  of 
beliefs  was  put  forth.  This  platform  called  for  the 
issue  of  more  paper  money,  abolition  of  national 
banks,  free  coinage  of  silver,  legislation  to  prevent 
trusts  and  corners,  tariff  reform,  government  owner 
ship  of  railroads,  and  restriction  of  public  lands  to 
actual  settlers. 

The  next  year,  the  annual  convention  of  the 
Alliance  was  held  at  Ocala,  Florida,  and  the  Oca- 
la  platform  was  published.  This  meeting  recom 
mended  the  so-called  sab-treasury  plan  by  which 
the  Federal  Government  wasTto  construct  ware 
houses  for  agricultural  products.  In  these  the  farm 
er  might  deposit  his  non-perishable  agricultural 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN   35 

products,  and  receive  80  per  cent  of  their  market 
value  in  greenbacks.  Surely  the  Southern  farmer 
had  shaken  off  much  of  his  traditional  conserva 
tism  in  approving  such  a  demand  as  this!  The 
explanation  is  not  far  to  seek. 

The  high  price  of  cotton  in  the  years  immedi 
ately  following  the  War  was  the  economic  salvation 
of  the  South.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  diffi 
culties  in  its  production,  the  returns  repaid  the 
outlay  and  more.  The  quantity  was  less  than 
the  world  demanded.  Not  until  1870-71  did  the 
production  approach  that  of  the  crops  before  the 
War.  Then,  with  the  increase  in  production  and 
general  financial  stringency  came  a  sharp  decrease 
in  price.  Between  1880  and  1890  the  price  was 
not  much  above  the  cost  of  production,  and  after 
1890  the  price  fell  still  lower.  When  middling 
cotton  brought  less  than  seven  cents  a  pound  in 
New  York,  the  small  producer  got  little  more  than 
five  cents  for  his  bale  or  two.  The  price  of  wheat 
and  corn  was  correspondingly  low,  if  the  farmer 
had  a  surplus  to  sell  at  harvest  time.  If  he  bought 
Western  corn  or  flour  in  the  spring  on  credit,  the 
price  he  paid  included  shrinkage,  storage,  freight, 
and  the  exorbitant  profit  of  the  merchant.  The 
low  price  received  by  the  Western  producer  had 


36  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

been  much  increased  before  the  cereals  reached  the 
Southern  consumer.  The  Southern  farmer  was  con 
sequently  becoming  desperate  and  was  threatening 
revolt  against  the  established  order. 

While  Southern  delegates  joined  the  Western 
Alliance  in  the  organization  of  the  People's  party 
/  in  1891  and  1892,  the  majority  of  the  members  in 
the  South  chose  an  easier  way  of  attaining  their 
object:  they  entered  the  Democratic  primaries  and 
conventions  and  captured  them.  In  State  after 
State,  men  in  sympathy  with  the  farmers  were 
chosen  to  office,  often  over  old  leaders  who  had 
been  supposed  to  have  life  tenure  of  their  positions. 
In  some  cases  these  leaders  retained  their  offices, 
if  not  their  influence,  by  subscribing  to  the  de 
mands  of  the  Alliance.  Perhaps  some  could  do 
this  without  reservation;  others,  Senators  parti 
cularly,  justified  themselves  on  the  theory  that  a 
legislature  had  the  right  to  speak  for  the  State 
and  instruct  those  chosen  to  represent  it. 

The  feeling  of  the  farmer  that  he  was  being  op 
pressed  threatened  to  develop  into  an  obsession. 
His  hatred  of  "money -power,"  "trusts,"  "corners," 
and  the  "hirelings  of  Wall  Street"  found  expres 
sion  in  his  opposition  to  the  local  lawyers  and  mer 
chants,  and,  in  fact,  to  the  residents  of  the  towns  in 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    37 

general.  The  idea  began  to  grow  up  that  any  one 
living  in  a  town  was  necessarily  an  enemy  to  the 
farmer.  The  prevalent  agricultural  point  of  view 
came  to  be  that  only  the  farmer  was  a  wealth  pro 
ducer,  and  that  all  others  were  parasites  who  sat 
in  the  shade  while  he  worked  in  the  sun  and  who 
lived  upon  the  products  of  his  labor.  This  bitter 
ness  the  farmer  extended  to  the  old  political  leaders 
whom  he  had  regarded  with  veneration  in  the  past. 
These  old  Confederate  soldiers,  he  believed,  had 
allowed  him  to  be  robbed,  r****!  *  f4**«.  CyhJWl 
The  state  Democratic  Convention  of  Georgia  in 
1890  pledged  all  candidates  for  office  to  support 
the  demands  of  the  Farmers'  Alliance,  including 
the  sub-treasury  "or  some  better  system."  Sena 
tor  John  B.  Gordon,  however,  refused  to  pledge  him 
self  and  was  reflected  nevertheless.  The  leader  of 
the  Alliance  was  nominated  and  elected  gover 
nor.  In  Alabama,  Reuben  F.  Kolb,  the  Commis 
sioner  of  Agriculture,  almost  obtained  the  Demo 
cratic  nomination  for  governor.  Two  years  later, 
he  again  entered  the  primary  and,  declaring  that 
he  had  been  cheated  out  of  the  nomination,  ran 
independently  as  the  candidate  of  the  Jefferson- 
ian  Democracy.  On  the  face  of  the  returns,  the 
regular  candidate  was  elected,  but  Kolb  pointed 


38  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

out  the  fact  that  the  Democratic  majorities  came 
from  the  black  counties,  while  the  white  counties 
had  given  a  majority  for  him.  Again  in  1894  Kolb 
entered  the  race  for  governor  and  again  declared 
that  he  had  been  counted  out,  as  he  had  not  only 
the  Jeff  ersonian  Democracy  behind  him  but  also  the 
endorsement  of  the  Republicans  and  the  Populists. 
Undoubtedly  the  controlling  influence  in  Demo 
cratic  councils  in  some  of  the  Southern  States  had 
been  exercised  by  a  very  small  element  in  the  popu 
lation.  A  few  men,  almost  a  "Family  Compact" 
either  held  the  important  offices  themselves,  or  de 
cided  who  should  hold  them,  and  fixed  the  party 
policy  so  far  as  it  had  a  policy  other  than  the  main 
tenance  of  white  supremacy.  The  governments 
were  generally  honest,  economical,  and  cheap.  The 
leaders,  partly  because  they  themselves  believed 
in  limiting  the  function  of  government  and  part 
ly  because  they  believed  that  the  voters  would  op 
pose  any  extension,  had  prevented  any  constructive 
legislation.  Events  showed  that  they  had  misun 
derstood  their  people.  When  the  revolt  came,  the 
farmer  legislators  showed  themselves  willing  to 
[  vote  money  liberally  for  education  and  for  other 
purposes  which  were  once  considered  outside  the 
sphere  of  government. 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    39 

South  Carolina  furnished  the  most  striking  ex 
ample  of  this  revolt.  In  that  State  the  families 
which  had  governed  before  the  War  continued  the 
direction  of  affairs.  By  a  rather  unusual  compro 
mise,  the  large  western  population  of  the  State 
had  been  balanced  against  the  greater  wealth  of 
the  east.  Consequently  there  was  overrepresenta- 
tion  of  the  east  after  the  negro  had  been  deprived 
of  the  ballot.  It  was  charged  —  and  with  some 
show  of  truth  —  that  a  small  group  of  men  cluster 
ing  around  Charleston  exercised  an  entirely  dispro 
portionate  share  of  influence  in  party  management. 
The  farmers,  with  a  growing  class  consciousness, 
began  to  resent  this  injustice  and  found  a  leader 
ready  and  anxious  to  direct  them. 

In  March,  1890,  the  delegates  of  the  Farmers' 
Association  decided  to  secure  the  nomination  for 
governor  for  Benjamin  R.  Tillman,  who  had  de 
voted  much  of  his  time  for  four  years  to  arousing 
the  farmers.  The  contest  for  the  nomination  was 
begun  in  May  and,  after  a  bitter  struggle,  Tillman 
won  easily  in  the  convention  in  September.  The 
"straight  outs,"  dazed  and  humiliated,  ran  an  in 
dependent  candidate.  Tillman  and  his  followers 
accepted  the  challenge  and  the  conflict  took  form  as 
a  struggle  between  mass  .and  class.  The  farmers' 


40  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

leader,  though  not  himself  illiterate,  obscure,  or 
poor,  raged  up  and  down  the  State  frankly  and 
brutally  preaching  class  war.  He  held  up  Charles 
ton  as  a  sink  of  iniquity,  and  he  promised  legis 
lation  to  cleanse  it.  Perhaps  a  majority  of  the 
whites  really  believed  his  charges  and  put  faith  in 
his  doctrines.  If  not,  the  fetish  of  party  regularity 
drew  the  votes  necessary  to  make  up  the  deficiency. 
Tillman  had  been  regularly  nominated  in  a  Demo 
cratic  convention,  and  South  Carolinians  had  been 
trained  to  vote  the  party  ticket.  He  was  elected 
by  a  large  majority. 

At  the  end  of  Tillman's  first  term  two  years  later, 
he  was  again  a  candidate,  and  the  convention  which 
nominated  him  approved  the  Ocala  platform. 
Since  the  party  machinery  was  in  control  of  the 
Tillmanites,  the  opposition  adopted  the  name 
"Cleveland  Democracy"  and  sought  to  undo  the 
revolution.  The  result  was  never  doubtful.  Till 
man  was  reflected  by  an  overwhelming  majority, 
and  on  the  expiration  of  his  term  was  sent  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  which  he  shocked  by  his 
passionate  utterances  as  he  had  so  often  shocked 
his  own  State.  The  attitude  of  the  educated  and 
cultivated  part  of  the  population  of  South  Car 
olina  toward  Tillman  affords  a  parallel  to  that 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN   41 

of  Tory  England  toward  Lloyd  George  twenty 
years  later.  The  parallel  may  be  extended  fur 
ther.  Tillman,  in  time,  modified  some  of  his 
extreme  opinions,  won  over  many  of  his  oppo 
nents,  and  gained  the  respect  of  his  colleagues  just 
as  Lloyd  George  has  done;  and  South  Carolina 
grew  to  have  pride  in  her  sturdy  fighter  whose  life 
ended  just  as  his  fourth  term  in  the  Senate  was 
almost  done. 

The  election  of  Tillman  as  Governor  and  then  as 
Senator  was  a  real  revolution,  for  South  Carolina 
had  been  long  represented  in  the  United  States 
Senate  by  Wade  Hampton  and  Matthew  C.  Butler, 
both  distinguished  soldiers  and  representatives  of 
the  old  regime.  Hampton,  under  whose  leadership 
the  carpetbag  government  had  been  overthrown, 
had  been  a  popular  idol.  Both  he  and  Butler  had 
won  the  respect  of  their  colleagues  in  the  Senate 
and  had  reflected  credit  upon  their  State.  But 
such  services  now  availed  nothing.  Both  they  and 
others  like  them  were  swept  out,  to  be  replaced  by 
the  partisans'  of  the  new  order. 

Nothing  was  omitted  by  the  reformers  to  humil 
iate  what  had  been  the  ruling  portion  of  the  popu 
lation.  The  liquor  traffic  was  made  a  state  mo 
nopoly  by  the  dispensary  system  modeled  on  the 


42  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Gothenburg  plan :  no  liquor  was  sold  to  be  drunk 
on  the  premises,  and  the  amount  allowed  a  pur 
chaser  was  limited.  It  was  hoped  the  revenue  thus 
received  would  permit  a  considerable  reduction  in 
the  tax  rate.  These  hopes,  however,  were  not 
realized,  and  scandals  concerning  the  purchasing 
agency  kept  the  State  in  a  turmoil  for  years.  Other 
legislation  was  more  successful.  An  agricultural 
and  mechanical  college  for  men  was  founded  at  the 
old  home  of  John  C.  Calhoun  at  Clemson.  A  nor 
mal  and  industrial  college  for  girls  has  also  proved 
very  successful.  The  appropriations  to  the  state 
university  were  reduced  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
an  aristocratic  institution,  but  on  the  other  hand 
funds  for  public  schools  were  increased. 

Not  all  the  members  of  the  Alliance  remained 
in  the  Democratic  party.  Populist  electors  were 
nominated  in  every  Southern  State  in  1892,  except 
in  Louisiana,  where  a  combined  Republican  and 
Populist  ticket  was  named.  In  no  State  did  the 
new  party  secure  a  majority,  but  in  Alabama, 
Georgia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Texas,  the 
Populist  vote  was  large.  In  North  Carolina,  al 
ways  inclined  to  independence,  the  combined  Re 
publican  and  Populist  vote  was  larger  than  that 
cast  for  Democratic  electors.  It  was  obvious  that 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    43 

Democratic  supremacy  was  imperiled,  if  the  new 
party  continued  its  amazing  growth. 

The  politicians,  Republican  and  Democratic,  set 
out  to  win  the  insurgents.  Some  shrewd  political 
manipulators,  scenting  future  profit  for  themselves, 
had  joined  the  new  movement  and  were  willing  to 
trade.  During  1893,  1894,  and  1895  the  Republi 
cans  were  generally  successful.  In  many  States 
there  was  more  or  less  cooperation  in  state  and 
county  tickets,  in  spite  of  the  disfavor  with  which 
the  Republican  party  had  been  regarded  in  the 
South.  In  North  Carolina  J.  C.  Pritchard,  a  regu 
lar  Republican,  was  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  to  fill  the  unexpired  term  of  Senator  Vance, 
but  the  Populist  state  chairman,  Marion  Butler, 
cool,  calculating,  and  shrewd,  took  the  full  term  to 
succeed  Senator  Ransom.  The  Democratic  party 
had  maintained  control  for  twenty  years,  and  it 
was  held  responsible  for  all  the  ills  from  which  the 
farmer  suffered.  Then,  too,  some  of  the  leaders  of 
the  new  party  felt  that  they  would  have  greater 
opportunities  for  preferment  by  cooperating  with 
a  party  in  which  the  number  of  white  voters 
was  small. 

The  doctrine  of  free  silver  had  been  making  con 
verts  among  the  Democrats,  however,  and  early  in 


44  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

1896  it  was  clear  that  a  majority  of  the  Southern 
delegates  to  the  national  convention  would  favor 
a  silver  plank.  The  action  of  the  convention  in 
nominating  Bryan  and  Sewall  is  told  in  another 
volume.1  Bryan  was  also  endorsed  by  the  Popu 
list  convention,  but  that  convention  refused  to  en 
dorse  Sewall  and  nominated  Thomas  E.  Watson 
for  Vice-President .  A  majority  of  the  Populist 
convention  favored  a  strict  party  fight,  but  the 
managers  were  shrewd,  and  the  occasion  mani^ 
festly  offered  great  opportunities  for  trading.  In 
twenty-six  States  the  electoral  tickets  were  divided 
between  Democrats  and  Populists.  Among  these 
States  were  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  Missouri,  and 
North  Carolina.  But  cooperation  with  Republi 
cans  on  local  legislative  and  state  tickets  often  oc 
curred.  In  North  Carolina,  a  fusion  legislature 
was  elected,  and  a  Republican  was  chosen  governor 
by  the  aid  of  Populist  votes,  though  one  faction  of 
the  Populists  nominated  a  separate  ticket.  The 
judicial  and  congressional  nominations  were  di 
vided.  The  apparent  inconsistency  of  voting  for 
Bryan  for  President  and  at  the  same  time  support 
ing  Republicans  who  might  be  expected  to  oppose 

1  The  Agrarian  Crusade,  by  Solon  J.  Buck  (in  The  Chronicles  of 
America). 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    45 

him  in  Congress  was  accepted  without  flinching. 
According  to  the  bargain  made  two  years  before, 
when  a  Republican  was  sent  to  the  United  States 
Senate  for  an  unexpired  term  by  the  aid  of  the 
Populist  votes,  Senator  Pritchard  was  reflected. 

The  experience  of  North  Carolina  with  fusion 
government  was  a  reminder  of  the  Reconstruction 
days.  The  Republicans  had  dilated  upon  "local 
self-government"  and  the  Populists  had  swallowed 
the  bait.  The  Legislature  changed  the  form  of 
county  government,  by  which  the  board  of  county 
commissioners  had  been  named  by  the  justices 
of  the  peace,  and  made  the  board  elective.  This 
turned  over  to  the  blacks  counties  in  which  several 
of  the  largest  towns  in  the  State  were  situated. 
Negro  politicians  were  chosen  to  office,  and  lawless 
ness  and  violence  followed.  In  Wilmington  there 
was  an  uprising  of  the  whites,  who  took  possession 
of  the  city  government  by  force.  The  Legislature 
was  again  Democratic  in  1898  and  began  to  prepare 
an  amendment  which  should  disfranchise  a  large 
proportion  of  the  125,000  negro  voters  of  the  State. 
There  was  cooperation  between  the  Republican  and 
Populist  organizations  again  in  1900,  but  too  many 
Populists  had  returned  to  their  former  allegiance. 
The  restrictive  amendment,  of  which  more  will  be 


46  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

said  presently,  was  carried  by  an  overwhelming  ma 
jority  at  the  special  election  in  the  summer,  and  at 
the  regular  election  in  November  the  Democratic 
ticket  was  chosen  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 

The  fusion  of  1896  and  the  rising  prices  of  agri 
cultural  products  killed  the  Populist  party  in  the 
South,  but  the  influence  of  the  movement  remains 
to  this  day.  It  has  had  some  effect  in  lessening 
political  intolerance,  for  those  of  the  Populists  who 
returned  to  the  Democratic  party  came  back  with 
out  apology,  while  others  have  since  classed  them 
selves  as  Republicans.  The  Populist  attitude  to 
ward  public  education  was  on  the  whole  friendly, 
and  more  money  has  since  been  demanded  and 
expended  for  public  schools. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  effect  of  the  Populist  move 
ment  was  the  overthrow  of  the  old  political  organ 
izations.  In  some  States  a  few  men  had  ruled  al 
most  by  common  consent.  They  had  exerted  a 
great  influence  upon  legislation  —  not  by  use  of  the 
vulgar  arts  of  the  lobbyists,  but  by  the  plea  of 
party  advantage  or  by  the  prophecy  of  party  loss. 
They  had  given  their  States  clean  government  and 
cheap  government,  but  nothing  more.  A  morbid 
fear  of  taxation,  or  rather  of  the  effects  of  taxation 
upon  the  people,  was  their  greatest  sin.  The 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    47 

agrarian  movement  took  them  unawares.  They 
were  unable  to  realize  that  between  the  South  of 
1890  and  another,  older  South,  there  was  a  great 
gap.  They  could  not  interpret  the  half -coherent 
speech  of  the  small  farmer,  who  had  come  to  feel 
that  he  had  been  wronged  and  struck  out  blindly  at 
those  whom  he  had  previously  trusted.  New  and 
unknown  men  appeared  in  Washington  to  take  the 
place  of  men  whose  character,  ability,  and  length 
of  service  had  made  them  national  figures.  The 
governorship  of  the  States  went  to  men  whose 
chief  qualifications  seemed  to  be  prominence  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Alliance  or  else  bitter  tongues. 

Though  the  Populists,  for  the  most  part,  re 
turned  to  the  Democratic  party,  and  the  suffrage  y 
amendments,  which  will  be  mentioned  present-  ^ 
ly,  made  the  possibility  of  Republican  success  ex 
tremely  remote,  the  "  old  guard"  has  never  regained 
its  former  position.  -In  all  the  Southern  States 
party  control  has  been  for  years  in  the  hands  of  the 
common  man.  The  men  he  chooses  to  office  are 
those  who  understand  his  psychology  and  can 
speak  his  language.  Real  primary  elections  were 
common  in  the  South  years  before  they  were  in 
troduced  elsewhere,  and  the  man  who  is  the  choice 
of  the  majority  in  the  Democratic  primary  wins. 


48  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Some  of  the  men  chosen  to  high  office  in  the  State 
and  nation  are  men  of  ability  and  high  character, 
who  recall  the  best  traditions  of  Southern  states 
manship;  others  are  parochial  and  mediocre;  and 
some  are  blatant  demagogues  who  bring  discredit 
upon  their  State  and  their  section  and  who  cannot 
be  restrained  from  "talking  for  Buncombe." 

The  election  of  a  Democratic  President  in  1884 
had  stirred  the  smoldering  distrust  of  the  South  on 
the  part  of  the  North.  The  well-known  fact  that 
the  negro  vote  in  the  South  did  not  have  the  influ 
ence  its  numbers  warranted  aroused  the  North  to 
demand  a  Federal  elections  law,  which  was  voiced 
by  bills  introduced  by  Senator  Hoar  of  Massa 
chusetts  and  by  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  then  a  mem 
ber  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Lodge's  bill, 
which  was  passed  by  the  House  in  1890,  permitted 
Federal  officials  to  supervise  and  control  congres 
sional  elections.  This  so-called  "Force  Bill"  was 
bitterly  opposed  by  the  Southerners  and  was  finally 
defeated  in  the  Senate  by  the  aid  of  the  votes  of  the 
silver  Senators  from  the  West,  but  the  escape  was  so 
narrow  that  it  set  Southerners  to  finding  another  way 
of  suppressing  the  negro  vote  than  by  force  or  fraud. 
Later  the  division  of  the  white  vote  by  the  Populist 
party  also  endangered  white  supremacy  in  the  South. 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    49 

In  this  same  year  (1890)  Mississippi  framed  a 
new  constitution,  which  required  as  a  prerequisite 
for  voting  a  residence  of  two  years  in  the  State  and 
one  year  in  the  district  or  town.  A  poll  tax  of  two 
dollars  —  to  be  increased  to  three  at  the  discretion 
of  the  county  commissioners  —  was  levied  on  all 
able-bodied  men  between  twenty-one  and  sixty. 
This  tax,  and  all  other  taxes  due  for  the  two  previ 
ous  years,  must  be  paid  before  the  1st  of  February 
of  the  election  year.  All  these  provisions,  though 
applying  equally  to  all  the  population,  greatly 
lessened  the  negro  vote.  Negroes  are  notoriously 
migratory,  and  a  large  proportion  never  remain  two 
years  in  the  same  place.  The  poll  tax  could  not  be 
collected  by  legal  process,  and  to  pay  the  tax  for 
two  years,  four  dollars  or  more,  eight  months  in  ad 
vance  of  an  election,  seemed  to  the  average  negro 
to  be  rank  extravagance.  Moreover,  few  politi 
cians  are  reckless  enough  to  arrange  for  the  pay 
ment  of  poll  taxes  in  exchange  for  the  promised 
delivery  of  votes  eight  months  away,  when  half  the 
would-be  voters  might  be  in  another  county,  or 
even  in  another  State.  To  clinch  the  matter,  the 
constitution  further  provided  that  after  1892,  in 
addition  to  the  qualifications  mentioned  above,  a 
person  desiring  to  vote  must  be  able  to  read  any 


50  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

section  of  the  constitution,  "or  he  shall  be  able  to 
understand  the  same  when  read  to  him,  or  give 
a  reasonable  interpretation  thereof."  Even  when 
fairly  administered,  this  section  operated  to  dis 
franchise  more  negroes  than  whites,  for  fewer  can 
read  and  fewer  can  understand  a  legal  instrument. 
But  it  is  obvious  that  the  opportunities  for  dis 
crimination  are  great:  a  simple  section  can  be  read 
to  an  illiterate  white,  while  a  more  difficult  section, 
filled  with  technicalities,  may  be  read  to  a  negro 
applicant;  and  the  phrase  "a  reasonable  interpre 
tation"  may  mean  one  thing  in  the  case  of  a  negro 
and  quite  another  where  a  white  man  is  concerned. 
It  is  perhaps  not  surprising  that  only  5123  Republi 
can  votes  were  reported  in  1896,  and  hardly  more, 
in  1912,  were  cast  for  Taft  and  Roosevelt  together. 
South  Carolina  followed  the  lead  of  Mississippi 
a  little  more  frankly  in  1895,  by  adopting  suffrage 
amendments  which  prov^ff!  far  twfi  yMTT*  resi- 
dence  in  the  State,  one  year  in  tbr  enmity,  rmrl  the 

ll  tq  v  cjy  T"™+li  n  ^  nf n»n  +V.  n   nl  n  rvH'rm 

fp  to  1898  any  person  who  could  read  any  section 
of  the  constitution,  or  could  understand  and  explain 
it  when  read  by  the  registration  officer,  could  have 
his  name  placed  upon  a  permanent  roll  and  could 
vote  thereafte^  provided  he  satisfied  the  other 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    51 

requirements  already  mentioned.  After  January  1, 
1898,  every  one  presenting  himself  for  registration 
had  to  be  able  to  read  and  write  any  section  of  the 
constitution,  or  else  must  have  paid  taxes  the  pre 
ceding  year  on  property  assessed  at  three  hundred 
dollars  or  over.  The  list  of  disqualifying  crimes  is 
long,  including  those  of  which  negroes  are  most 
commonly  found  guilty,  such  as  larceny,  false  pre 
tence,  bigamy,  adultery,  wife-beating,  and  receiv 
ing  stolen  goods.  To  insure  the  complexion  of  the 
permanent  roll,  the  registration  was  conducted  in 
each  county  by  a  board  of  "three  discreet  persons " 
appointed  by  the  Governor,  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Senate. 

It  would  seem  that  either  of  these  constitutions 
would  serve  to  reduce  the  negro  vote  sufficiently, 
while  allowing  practically  all  white  men  to  vote. 
Large  discretion,  however,  is  lodged  in  the  officers 
of  election,  and  Democratic  control  in  these  matters 
is  safe  only  so  long  as  the  white  men  stick  together. 
Louisiana  went  a  step  further  in  1898  and  intro 
duced  the  famous  "grandfather  clause"  into  her 
constitution.  Other  requirements  were  similar  to 
those  already  mentioned.  Two  years'  residence  in 
the  State,  one  year  in  the  parish,  and  six  months 
in  the  precinct  were  preliminary  conditions;  in 


52  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

addition  the  applicant  must  be  able  to  read  and 
write  in  English  or  his  mother  tongue,  or  he  must 
be  the  owner  of  property  assessed  for  three  hundred 
dollars  or  more. 

This  general  requirement  of  literacy  or  owner 
ship  of  property  was  waived,  however,  in  case  of 
foreigners  naturalized  before  January  1,  1898,  who 
had  lived  in  the  State  five  years,  and  in  the  case  of 
men  who  had  voted  in  any  State  before  1867,  or  of 
sons  or  grandsons  of  such  persons.  These  could  be 
placed  upon  a  permanent  roll  to  be  made  up  before 
September  1,  1898,  and  should  have  the  right  to 
vote  upon  complying  with  the  residence  and  poll 
tax  requirements.  Practically  all  white  persons  of 
native  stock  either  voted  in  some  State  in  1867  or 
were  descended  from  some  one  who  had  so  voted. 
Few  negroes  in  any  State,  and  none  in  the  South, 
were  voters  in  that  year.  It  is  obvious  that  suf 
frage  was  open  to  white  but  barred  to  negro  illiter-. 
ates.  Apparently  the  only  whites  debarred  under 
this  clause  were  the  illiterate  and  indigent  sons  of 
foreign-born  fathers. 

North  Carolina  adopted  a  new  suffrage  article 
in  1900  which  is  much  simpler  than  those  just 
described.  It  requires  two  years'  residence  in  the 
State,  one  in  the  county,  and  the  payment  of  poll 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN   53 

tax  before  the  1st  of  May  in  the  election  year.  A 
uniform  educational  qualification  is  laid  down,  but 
the  "permanent  roll"  is  also  included.  No  "male 
person  who  was  on  January  1, 1867,  or  at  any  other 
time  prior  thereto,  entffctcfJ^p^rt^TTnaer  the  laws 
of  any  State  in  the  United  States,  wherein  he  then 
resided,  and  no  lineal  descendant  of  any  such  per 
son  shall  be  denied  the  right  to  register  and  vote  at 
any  election  in  the  State  by  reason  of  his  failure  to 
possess  the  educational  qualifications  herein  pre 
scribed:  Provided  he  shall  have  registered  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  terms  of  this  section  prior  to 
December  1, 1908."  In  other  words,  any  white  il 
literate  thirteen  years  old  or  over  when  the  amend 
ment  was  adopted  would  not  be  deprived  of  his  vote 
because  of  the  lack  of  educational  qualifications. 
No  other  State  had  given  so  long  a  time  as  this. 

The  "grandfather  clause"  here  was  shrewdly 
drawn.  Free  negroes  voted  in  North  Carolina  ui 
til  1835,  and  under  the  terms  of  the  clause  any  negro 
who  could  prove  descent  from  a  negro  voter  could 
not  be  debarred  because  of  illiteracy.  Negroes 
voted  in  a  few  States  in  1867,  and  they  or  their 
descendants  were  exempt  from  the  educational 
test.  Of  course  the  number  of  these  was  negli 
gible,  and  the  clause  accomplished  precisely  what 


54  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

it  was  intended  to  do  —  that  is,  it  disfranchised  a 
large  proportion  of  the  negroes  and  yet  allowed 
the  whites  to  vote.  The  extension  of  the  time  of 
registration  until  1908,  eight  years  after  the  amend 
ment  was  adopted  and  six  after  it  went  into  effect, 
made  the  disfranchisement  of  any  considerable 
number  of  whites  impossible. 

Alabama  followed  in  1901,  combining  the  South 
Carolina  and  the  Louisiana  plans  and  including 
the  usual  residence  and  poll  tax  requirements,  as 
well  as  the  permanent  roll.  This  was  to  be  made 
up  before  December  20,  1902,  and  included  soldiers 
of  the  United  States,  or  of  the  State  of  Alabama  in 
any  war,  soldiers  of  the  Confederate  States,  their 
lawful  descendants,  and  "men  of  good  character 
who  understood  the  duties  and  obligations  of  citi 
zenship  under  a  republican  form  of  government." 
After  the  permanent  roll  has  been  made  up,  the 
applicant  for  registration  must  be  able  to  read  and 
write  and  must  have  worked  the  greater  part  of  the 
twelve  months  next  preceding,  or  he  or  his  wife 
must  own  forty  acres  of  land  or  real  estate  or  per 
sonal  property  assessed  at  not  less  than  three  hun 
dred  dollars.  A  long  list  of  disqualifying  crimes 
was  added,  including  wife-beating  and  conviction 
for  vagrancy.  As  if  this  were  not  enough,  after 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    55 

1903  an  applicant  for  registration  might  be  re 
quired  to  state  where  he  had  lived  during  the  pre 
ceding  five  years,  the  name  or  names  by  which 
known,  and  the  names  of  his  employers.  Refusal 
to  answer  was  made  a  bar  to  registration,  and  wilful 
misstatement  was  regarded  as  perjury. 

Oklahoma  adopted  its  disfranchising  amendment 
n  1910,  without  valid  reason  so  far  as  any  one 
utside  the  State  could  see,  as  the  proportion  of  ne 
groes  was  very  small.  An  attempt  was  made  per 
manently  to  disfranchise  the  illiterate  negro  by 
he  "grandfather  clause,"  while  allowing  illiterate 
white  voters  to  vote  forever.  Other  States  allowed 
a  limited  time  in  which  to  register  on  a  permanent 
roll,  after  which  all  illiterates  were  to  be  disfran 
chised.  Oklahoma  sought  to  keep  suffrage  perma 
nently  open  to  illiterate  whites,  while  closing  it  to 
illiterate  negroes.  This  amendment  was  declared 
unconstitutional  by  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  in  June,  1915,  on  the  ground  that  a  State  can 
not  reestablish  conditions  existing  before  the  rati 
fication  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  even  though 
the  disfranchising  amendment  contained  no  "ex 
press  words  of  exclusion"  but  "inherently  brings 
that  result  into  existence."1  What  the  Court  will 

1  Guinn  vs.  United  States,  238  U.  S..  347. 


56  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

do  with  other  similar  constitutional  amendments 
when  they  are  brought  before  it  is  not  so  certain. 
All  differ  somewhat,  and  it  is  possible  that  the 
Court  may  let  the  whole  or  a  part  of  some  of  them 
stand.  If  not,  it  is  probable  that  straight  educa 
tional  and  property  qualifications  will  be  substitu 
ted.  In  fact,  if  the  Court  disapproves  the  perma 
nent  roll  but  allows  the  remainder  to  stand,  educa 
tional  and  property  qualifications  will  prevail  in 
several  States. 

All  these  plans  for  disf ranchisement  have  accom 
plished  the  desired  results  up  to  the  present  time. 
The  negro  vote  has  been  greatly  reduced  and  elec 
tions  are  decided  by  the  votes  of  white  men.  In 
some  States,  negroes  who  could  easily  pass  the  tests 
no  longer  take  the  trouble  to  go  to  the  polls.  The 
number  of  white  voters  also  grows  smaller.  Some 
fail  to  pay  the  poll  tax,  and  others  stay  away  from 
the  polls  because,  as  a  rule,  the  result  has  been  de 
cided  in  the  primary  elections.  Since  a  Democrat 
ic  nomination  is  practically  equivalent  to  election, 
many  voters  who  have  taken  part  in  the  primaries 
neglect  to  vote  on  election  day.  Only  in  North 
Carolina  is  there  evidence  of  the  growth  of  a  strong 
Republican  opposition.  In  1908,  Taft  received 
over  114,000  votes,  and  the  Republican  candidate 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    57 

for  governor  107,000.  In  1916  Hughes  received 
120,000  votes  as  against  168,000  for  Wilson. 

What  was  done  with  the  negro  when  he  was  thus 
rendered  politically  helpless?  Was  there  an  at 
tempt  to  take  from  him  other  things  than  the  bal 
lot?  The  answer  must  be  in  the  affirmative.  Men 
advocated  segregation  in  common  carriers,  in  pub 
lic  places,  and  even  in  places  of  residences.  An  at 
tempt  to  confine  appropriations  for  negro  schools 
to  the  amount  of  taxes  directly  paid  by  the  negroes 
has  been  made;  men  have  sought  office  on  a  plat 
form  of  practical  serfdom  for  the  negro.  But 
although  some  few  have  achieved  temporary  suc 
cesses  —  at  least  they  have  been  elected  —  their 
programs  have  not  been  carried  out.  The  "Jim 
Crow"  car  is  common  and  the  negro  schools  do  not 
get  appropriations  equal  to  those  of  the  whites,  but 
little  else  has  been  done.  In  fact,  evidences  of  a 
reaction  in  favor  of  the  negro  soon  became  ap 
parent.  The  late  Governor  Charles  B.  Ay  cock  of 
North  Carolina  at  the  beginning  of  this  century 
won  his  triumphs  on  a  platform  of  justice  for 
the  negro. 

The  question  of  the  liquor  traffic  began  to  engage 
the  attention  of  the  Southern  people  very  soon 
after  the  end  of  Reconstruction.  The  great  problem 


58  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

was  the  sale  of  liquor  in  the  unpoliced  country 
districts,  and  especially  to  negroes.  By  special 
legislative  acts  forbidding  the  sale  of  liquor  within 
a  given  number  of  miles  of  a  church  or  a  school  a 
large  part  of  the  South  was  made  dry.  Local  op 
tion  acts  continued  the  restrictive  work  until  the 
sale  of  liquor  outside  of  the  larger  incorporated 
towns  became  rare.  In  some  States,  acts  applying 
to  the  whole  State  forbade  the  sale  outside  of 
towns.  By  concentrating  their  efforts  upon  the 
towns,  the  anti-saloon  forces  made  a  large  number 
of  them  dry  also,  but  there  was  so  much  illicit  sale 
that  employers  often  found  that  Monday  was  a 
wasted  day. 

State  wide  prohibition  began  in  1907  with  Okla 
homa  and  Georgia,  and  State  after  State  followed 
until,  in  1914,  ten  States  were  wholly  dry,  and  in 
large  areas  of  the  other  Southern  States  the  sale 
of  intoxicants  was  forbidden  through  local  option. 
Southern  members  of  Congress  urged  the  submis 
sion  of  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  forbidding  manufacture  or  sale  of  intoxicants 
in  the  nation.  Every  Southern  State  promptly 
ratified  the  Amendment  when  it  was  submitted 
by  Congress. 

Unfortunately  many  negroes  when  deprived  of 


THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  COMMON  MAN    59 

alcohol  began  to  use  drugs,  such  as  cocaine,  and  the 
effect  morally  and  physically  was  worse  than  that 
of  liquor.  The  "coke  fiend"  became  a  familiar 
sight  in  the  police  courts  of  Southern  cities,  and  the 
underground  traffic  in  the  drug  is  still  a  serious  prob 
lem.  The  new  Federal  law  has  helped  to  control 
the  evil,  but  both  cocaine  and  alcohol  are  still  sold 
to  negroes,  sometimes  by  pedlars  of  their  own  race, 
sometimes  by  unscrupulous  white  men.  The  con 
sumption  of  both  is  less,  however,  than  before  the 
restrictive  legislation.  The  South  has  traveled  far 
from  its  old  opposition  to  sumptuary  laws.  Like 
State  Rights,  this  principle  is  only  invoked  when 
convenient.  Starting  largely  as  a  movement  to 
keep  whiskey  from  the  negro  and,  to  a  somewhat 
less  extent,  from  the  white  laborer,  prohibition  has 
become  popular.  On  the  whole  it  has  worked  well 
in  the  South  though  "  moonshining  "  is  undoubted 
ly  increasing.  The  enormous  price  eagerly  paid 
for  whiskey  in  the  "bone-dry"  States  has  led  to 
a  revival  of  the  illicit  distillery,  which  had  been 
almost  stamped  out. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    FARMER    AND    THE    LAND 

THE  end  of  Reconstruction  found  the  tenant  sys 
tem  and  the  "crop  lien"  firmly  fastened  upon  the 
South.  The  plantation  system  had  broken  down 
since  the  owner  no  longer  had  slaves  to  work  his 
land,  capital  to  pay  wages,  or  credit  on  which  to 
borrow  the  necessary  funds.  Many  of  the  great 
plantations  had  already  been  broken  up  and  sold, 
while  others,  divided  into  tracts  of  convenient  size, 
had  been  rented  to  white  or  negro  tenants.  What 
had  been  one  plantation  became  a  dozen  farms, 
a  score,  or  even  more.  Men  who  owned  smaller 
tracts  found  it  difficult  to  hire  or  to  keep  labor, 
and  many  retained  only  the  land  which  they  or 
their  sons  could  work  and  rented  the  remainder  of 
their  farms.  This  system  is  still  characteristic  of 
Southern  agriculture. 

Few  of  the  landless  whites  and  practically  none 
of  the  negroes  had  sufficient  money  reserve  to 

60 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          61 

maintain  themselves  for  a  year  and  hence  no  capi 
tal  tof apply  to  the  land  on  which  they  were  tenants. 
Yet  the  land  was  there  ready  to  produce,  the  labor 
was  there,  more  or  less  willing  to  work  if  it  could 
but  live  while  the  crop  was  growing.  The  country 
merchant  had  already  assumed  the  office  of  banker 
to  the  tenant  farmer,  and  this  position  he  still 
holds  in  spite  of  all  efforts  to  dislodge  him.  His 
customers  include  not  only  tenants  but  some  land 
owners,  white  or  black.  They  buy  from  him,  dur 
ing  the  months  before  the  crop  is  gathered,  the 
food,  clothing,  and  other  supplies  necessary  for 
existence,  and  as  many  simple  luxuries  as  he  will 
permit.  When  the  crops  are  gathered,  he  buys 
them,  or  at  least  the  share  of  them  belonging  to  the 
tenant,  subtracts  the  store  accounts,  and  turns  over 
the  surplus,  if  any,  to  the  farmers. 

Unlike  other  bankers,  the  merchant  charges  no 
interest  upon  the  capital  he  advances,  but  he  is 
paid  nevertheless.  For  every  pound  of  bacon,  meal, 
and  flour,  for  every  gallon  of  molasses,  for  every 
yard  of  cloth,  for  every  plug  of  tobacco  or  tin  of 
snuff  which  the  customer  consumes  during  the 
spring  and  summer,  an  advanced  price  is  charged 
to  him  on  the  merchant's  books.  With  thousands 
of  these  merchants  selling  to  hundreds  of  thousands 


62  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

of  farmers  over  a  wide  area,  it  is  of  course  impos 
sible  to  state  the  average  difference  between  credit 
and  cash  prices.  Investigations  made  in  different 
sections  show  a  wide  variation  depending  upon  cus 
tom,  competition,  the  reliability  and  industry  of 
the  customer,  the  amount  of  advances,  and  the 
length  of  credit.  (  Since  a  large  part  of  the  advances 
are  made  during  the  six,  or  even  four  months  before 
the  crops  are  gathered,  the  difference  between  cash 
and  credit  prices  amounts  often  to  an  interest 
charge  of  forty  to  one  hundred  per  cent  or  even 
more  a  year.  •  These  advanced  credit  prices,  and 
consequently  the  high  interest  rates,  may  be  paid 
not  only  upon  food,  clothing,  and  other  personal 
goods,  but  also,  occasionally,  upon  tools,  farming 
implements,  fertilizers,  and  work  animals. 

The  merchant  is  supposed  to  be  protected  against 
loss  by  the  institution  of  the  crop  lien  and  the  chat 
tel  mortgage.  By  one  or  the  other  of  these  the 
farmer  is  enabled  to  mortgage  his  growing,  or  even 
his  unplanted  crops,  his  farming  implements,  his 
cattle,  and  horses,  if  he  owns  them.  If  he  is  a  land 
owner,  the  land  may  be  included  in  a  mortgage  as 
additional  security.  The  crop  is  conveyed  to  the 
mortgagee  as  in  an  ordinary  land  mortgage,  and 
the  tenant  cannot  hold  back  his  crop  for  a  better 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          63 

price,  or  seek  a  better  market  for  any  part  of  it, 
until  all  his  obligations  have  been  settled.  Dis 
posing  of  mortgaged  property  is  a  serious  offense 
and  no  one  not  desirous  of  abetting  fraud  will  buy 
property  which  he  has  reason  to  suspect  has  been 
mortgaged.  As  a  result  of  this  system  in  some 
sections,  years  ago,  nine-tenths  of  the  farmers  were 
in  debt.  Undoubtedly  the  prices  credited  for  the 
crops  have  been  less  than  might  have  been  ob 
tained  in  a  market  absolutely  free.  If  the  crops  a 
farmer  raises  bring  less  than  the  advances,  the  bal 
ance  is  carried  over  to  the  next  year  and  no  other 
merchant  will  give  credit  to  a  man  whose  accounts 
with  his  former  creditor  are  not  clear.  In  the  past 
the  signing  of  one  of  these  legal  instruments  has 
often  reduced  the  farmer  to  a  state  of  peonage. 

Naturally  the  merchant  who  has  begun  to  extend 
credit,  sometimes  before  the  seed  is  in  the  ground, 
has  a  voice  in  deciding  what  crops  shall  be  planted. 
The  favorite  crops  in  the  past  have  been  tobacco 
and  cotton,  particularly  the  latter.  Both  contain 
comparatively  large  value  in  small  bulk;  both  can 
be  stored  conveniently,  with  little  danger  of  deteri 
oration;  neither  is  liable  to  a  total  failure;  a  ready 
market  for  both  is  always  available;  and  neither 
tempts  the  thief  until  it  is  ripe.  Only  winter 


64  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

wheat,  sown  in  the  fall  and  reaped  in  early  summer, 
is  grown  in  the  South,  and  the  crop  is  somewhat 
uncertain.  A  tenant  who  has  secured  advances  on 
a  crop  of  wheat  during  the  fall  and  winter  may 
easily  move  to  an  adjoining  county  or  State  in  the 
spring  and  plant  cotton  there.  Half  a  crop  of 
corn  may  easily  be  stolen,  eaten  by  animals,  or  con 
sumed  by  the  tenant  while  still  green.  A  further 
reason  for  not  encouraging  the  production  of  corn 
and  wheat  is  the  profit  the  merchant  makes  by  the 
sale  of  imported  flour,  meal,  and  bacon.  Cotton 
is  therefore  almost  the  only  product  of  sections 
admirably  suited  to  the  growing  of  corn  or  to  the 
raising  of  hogs.  The  country  merchant  has  helped 
to  keep  the  South  poor. 

Yet  in  spite  of  the  apparently  exorbitant  per 
centage  of  profit,  few  country  merchants  become 
rich.  In  a  year  of  drouth,  or  of  flood,  many  of  their 
debtors  may  not  be  able  to  pay  their  accounts, 
even  though  their  intentions  are  of  the  best.  Others 
may  prove  shiftless  and  neglect  their  fields.  Still 
others  may  be  deliberately  dishonest  and,  after 
getting  as  large  advances  as  possible,  abandon  their 
crops  leaving  both  the  landowner  and  the  merchant 
in  the  lurch.  These  creditors  must  then  either 
attempt  to  harvest  the  crop  by  hired  labor,  with 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          65 

the  hope  of  reducing  their  loss,  or  else  charge  the 
whole  to  profit  and  loss.  The  illness  or  death  of 
the  debtor  may  also  prevent  the  proper  cultivation 
of  the  crop  he  has  planted.  For  these  different 
reasons  every  country  merchant  is  likely  to  accu 
mulate  many  bad  debts  which  may  finally  throw 
him  into  bankruptcy.  Those  who  succeed  are 
exceptionally  shrewd  or  very  fortunate. 

The  relation  of  the  tenant  to  his  landlord  varies 
in  different  parts  of  the  South.  Many  different 
plans  of  landholding  have  been  tried  since  1865, 
and  traces  of  all  of  them  may  be  found  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  South.  One  was  a 
modified  serfdom,  in  which  the  tenant  worked  for 
the  landlord  four  or  five  days  in  every  week  for  a 
small  wage.  In  addition  he  had  a  house,  firewood, 
and  several  acres  of  land  which  he  might  cultivate 
on  his  own  account.  According  to  another  plan, 
the  landlord  promised  to  pay  a  fixed  sum  of  money 
to  the  laborer  when  the  crop  was  gathered.  Both 
plans  had  their  origin  primarily  in  the  landlord's 
poverty,  but  were  reenforced  by  the  tenant's  un 
reliability.  These  plans,  as  well  as  combinations  of 
these  with  some  others  to  be  mentioned,  have  now 
practically  died  out.  There  remain  the  following 
alternatives:  land  may  be  rented  for  a  fixed  sum  of 


66  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

money  per  acre,  to  be  paid  when  the  crops  are 
sold,  or  for  a  fixed  quantity  of  produce,  so  many 
bushels  of  corn  or  so  many  pounds  of  cotton  being 
paid  for  every  acre;  or,  more  commonly,  land  may 
be  rented  on  some  form  of  share  tenancy  by  which 
the  risk  as  well  as  the  profit  is  shared  by  both  tenant 
and  landowner. 

Share  tenancy  assumes  various  forms.  In  some 
sections  a  rough  understanding  grew  up  that,  in  the 
division  of  a  crop,  one-third  was  to  be  allotted  to 
the  land,  one-third  to  live  stock,  seed,  and  tools, 
and  one-third  to  labor.  If  the  tenant  brought 
nothing  but  his  bare  hands,  he  received  only  the 
share  supposed  to  be  due  to  labor;  if  he  owned 
working  animals  and  implements,  he  received  in 
addition  the  share  supposed  to  be  due  to  them. 
This  arrangement,  modified  in  individual  cases, 
still  persists,  especially  where  the  tenants  are  white. 
As  various  forms  of  industrial  enterprise  have 
continued  to  draw  labor  from  the  farms,  the  share 
assigned  to  labor  by  this  form  of  tenancy  has 
increased  until,  in  perhaps  the  greater  part  of  the 
South  and  certainly  in  the  cotton-growing  sections, 
it  is  usually  one-half. 

The  ordinary  arrangement  of  share  tenancy  un 
der  which  the  negro  in  the  cotton  belt  now  works 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          87 

provides  that  the  landowner  shall  furnish  a  cabin  in 
which  the  family  may  live  and  an  acre  or  two  for  a 
garden.  In  addition,  working  stock,  implements, 
and  seed  are  supplied  by  the  owner  of  the  land. 
Both  tenant  and  owner  share  the  cost  of  fertilizers 
if  any  are  used,  and  divide  equally  the  expenses  of 
preparing  the  crop  for  market  and  the  proceeds  of 
the  sale.  This  arrangement  means,  of  course,  that 
the  capitalist  takes  the  laborer  into  a  real  part 
nership.  Both  embark  in  a  venture  the  deferred 
results  of  which  are  dependent  chiefly  upon  the  in 
dustry  and  good  faith  of  the  laborer.  By  a  seem 
ing  paradox  it  is  only  the  laborer's  unreliability 
which  gives  him  such  an  opportunity,  for  if  he  were 
more  dependable,  the  landowner  would  prefer  in 
most  cases  to  pay  wages  and  take  the  whole  of 
the  crop.  Because  the  average  negro  laborer  can 
not  be  depended  upon  to  be  faithful,  he  is  giv 
en  a  greater  opportunity,  contrary  to  all  ordinary 
moral  maxims. 

When  the  share  tenant  lives  on  the  land  he  may 
be  a  part  of  two  different  systems.  There  are  some 
large  plantations  over  which  the  owners  or  man 
agers  exercise  close  supervision.  The  horses  or, 
more  generally,  the  mules  are  housed  in  large  com 
mon  stables  or  sheds  and  are  properly  looked  after. 


68  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Some  attempt  is  made  to  see  that  tools  and  imple 
ments  are  kept  in  order.  If  the  tenant  falls  behind 
in  his  work  and  allows  his  crop  to  be  overrun  with 
grass  or  is  unable  to  pick  the  cotton  as  it  opens,  the 
owner  hires  help,  if  possible,  and  charges  the  cost 
against  the  tenant.  In  other  words,  the  owner  at- 
temptsjto  apply  to  agriculture  some  of  the  principles 
of  industrial  organization.  The  success  of  such  at 
tempts  varies.  The  negro  tenant  generally  resents 
close  supervision;  but  on  the  other  hand  he  enjoys 
the  community  life  of  a  large  plantation.  In  the 
end,  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  personal  equation 
determines  whether  the  negro  stays  or  moves. 

At  the  other  extreme  is  the  landowner  who  turns 
over  his  land  to  the  negro  and  hopes  for  some  re 
turn.  If  the  tenant  is  industrious  and  ambitious, 
the  landowner  gets  something  and  is  relieved  of  the 
trouble  of  supervision.  Often,  however,  he  finds 
at  the  end  of  the  year  that  the  mules  have  deteri 
orated  from  being  worked  through  the  day  and 
driven  or  ridden  over  the  country  at  night;  the 
tools  and  implements  are  broken  or  damaged ;  and 
the  fences  have  been  used  for  firewood,  though  an 
abundant  supply  could  have  been  obtained  by  a 
few  hours'  labor.  Very  often  the  landlord's  share 
of  the  small  crop  will  not  really  compensate  him  for 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          69 

the  depreciated  value  of  his  property,  for  land 
rented  without  supervision  is  likely  to  decrease  in 
fertility  and  to  bring  in  meager  returns. 

A  more  successful  arrangement  between  the  two 
extremes  is  often  seen  in  sections  where  the  popu 
lation  is  largely  white  and  land  is  held  in  smaller 
tracts.  Here  a  white  farmer  who  owns  more  land 
than  he  or  his  sons  can  cultivate  marks  off  a  tract 
for  a  tenant,  white  or  black,  who  may  be  said  to 
work  with  his  landlord.  Both  he  and  others  of  his 
family  may  work  an  occasional  day  for  the  land 
lord,  receiving  pay  either  in  kind  or  in  cash.  Rela 
tions  between  such  families  often  become  close,  and 
the  tenant  may  remain  on  the  property  for  years. 
In  some  sections  there  are  numerous  examples  of 
what  might  be  called  permanent  tenants.  Some 
times  such  a  tenant  ultimately  purchases  the  land 
upon  which  he  has  worked  or  other  land  in  the 
neighborhood. 

The  plantation  owner  may  be  a  merchant-land 
lord  also  and  may  furnish  supplies  to  his  tenants. 
He  keeps  only  staple  articles,  but  he  may  give  an 
order  on  a  neighboring  store  for  those  not  in  stock 
or  may  even  furnish  small  sums  of  money  on  occa 
sion.  The  tenants  are  not  allowed  to  buy  as  much 
as  they  choose  either  in  the  plantation  store  or  in 


70  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

the  local  store  at  the  crossroads.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  year  the  landlord  or  the  merchant  generally 
allows  a  credit  ranging  from  fifty  to  two  hundred 
dollars  but  rarely  higher  and  attempts  to  make  the 
tenant  distribute  the  purchases  over  the  whole 
period  during  which  the  crop  is  growing.  If  per 
mitted,  many,  perhaps  a  large  majority  of  the  ten 
ants,  might  use  up  their  credit  months  before  the 
crop  was  gathered.  In  such  cases  the  merchant  or 
landlord,  or  both,  must  make  further  advances  to 
save  what  they  have  already  invested  or  else  must 
see  the  tenant  abandon  his  crops  and  move. 

These  relations  between  landlord  and  tenant 
show  much  diversity,  but  certain  conditions  prevail 
everywhere.  Few  tenants  can  sustain  themselves 
until  the  crop  is  gathered,  and  a  very  large  per 
centage  of  them  must  eat  and  wear  their  crops 
before  they  are  gathered  —  a  circumstance  which 
will  create  no  surprise  unless  the  reader  makes  the 
common  error  of  thinking  of  them  as  capitalists. 
Though  the  landlord  in  effect  takes  his  tenants  into 
partnership,  they  are  really  only  laborers,  and  few 
laborers  anywhere  are  six  or  eight  months  ahead  of 
destitution.  How  many  city  laborers,  even  those 
with  skilled  trades,  could  exist  without  credit  if 
their  wages  were  paid  only  once  a  year?  How 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND  71 

many  of  them  would  have  prudence  or  foresight 
enough  to  conserve  their  wages  when  finally  paid 
and  make  them  last  until  the  next  annual  pay 
ment?  The  fault  for  which  the  tenant  is  to  be 
blamed  is  that  he  does  not  take  advantage  of  two 
courses  of  action  open  to  him :  first,  to  raise  a  con 
siderable  part  of  the  food  he  consumes;  and  sec 
ond,  to  struggle  persistently  to  become  independ 
ent  of  the  merchant.  Thousands  of  tenants  have 
achieved  their  economic  freedom,  and  all  could  if 
they  would  only  make  an  intelligent  and  continued 
effort  to  do  so. 

Nowhere  else  in  the  United  States  has  the  negro 
the  same  opportunity  to  become  self-sustaining, 
but  his  improvidence  keeps  him  poor.  Too  often 
he  allows  what  little  garden  he  has  to  be  choked 
with  weeds  through  his  shiftlessness.  One  of  the 
shrewdest  observers  and  fairest  critics  of  the  negro, 
Alfred  Holt  Stone,  says  of  the  Mississippi  negro: 
"In  a  plantation  experience  of  more  than  twelve 
years,  during  which  I  have  been  a  close  observer  of 
the  economic  life  of  the  plantation  negro,  I  have 
not  known  one  to  anticipate  the  future  by  investing 
the  earnings  of  one  year  in  supplies  for  the  next. 
.  .  .  The  idea  seems  to  be  that  the  money  from 
a  crop  already  gathered  is  theirs,  to  be  spent  as 


72  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

fancy  suggests,  while  the  crop  to  be  made  must 
take  care  of  itself,  or  be  taken  care  of  by  the 
4 white-folks.'"1  This  statement  is  not  so  true  of 
the  negroes  of  the  Upper  South,  many  of  whom 
are  more  intelligent,  and  have  developed  foresight 
and  self-reliance. 

The  theory  that  there  is  an  organized  conspiracy 
over  the  whole  South  to  keep  the  negro  in  a  state  of 
peonage  is  frequently  advanced  by  ignorant  or  dis 
ingenuous  apologists  for  the  negro,  but  this  belief 
cannot  be  defended.  The  merchants  usually  pre 
fer  to  sell  for  cash,  and  more  and  more  of  them  are 
reluctant  to  sell  on  credit.  In  some  cotton  towns 
no  merchant  will  sell  on  credit,  and  the  landlord  is 
obliged  to  furnish  supplies  to  those  who  cannot  pay. 
The  landowners  generally  would  much  prefer  a 
group  of  prosperous  permanent  tenants  who  could 
be  depended  upon  to  give  some  thought  to  the  crop 
of  the  future  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  present.  In 
the  South  as  a  whole  the  negro  finds  little  difficulty 
in  buying  land,  if  he  can  make  a  moderate  first  pay 
ment.  It  is  true  that  some  are  cheated  by  the 
merchant  or  the  landlord.  Prices  charged  for  sup 
plies  are  too  high,  and  the  prices  credited  for  crops 
are  too  low,  but  the  debtors  are  hardly  swindled  to 

1  Stone,  Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem,  p.  188. 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND  73 

a  greater  extent  than  the  ignorant  and  illiterate 
elsewhere. 

The  condition  of  the  white  tenant  is  sometimes 
little  better  than  that  of  the  negro.  He  usually 
farms  a  larger  tract,  83.8  acres  on  the  average  (in 
1910),  as  against  39.6  acres  for  the  negro,  and  he  is 
on  the  whole  more  prosperous ;  but  there  are  many 
who  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  move  frequently, 
habitually  get  into  debt  to  the  merchant  or  the 
landlord,  and  have  little  or  no  surplus  at  settling 
time.  In  the  South  in  1910  there  were  866,000 
white  tenant  farmers  who  cultivated  20.5  per  cent 
of  all  the  land,  and  since  that  time  white  tenancy 
has  been  increasing.  The  increase  of  land  owner 
ship  is  greater  among  the  negroes  than  among  the 
whites,  who  are  in  many  cases  illiterates.  This  il 
literacy  is  one  cause  of  their  poverty,  but  not  the 
only  cause :  a  part  of  it  is  moral,  involving  a  lack  of 
steadfast  purpose,  and  a  part  is  physical.  The  re 
searches  conducted  by  the  United  States  Govern 
ment,  the  state  boards  of  health,  and  the  Rocke 
feller  Foundation  show  clearly  that  much  of  the 
indolence  charged  to  the  less  prosperous  Southern 
rural  whites  is  due  to  the  effect  of  the  hookworm,  a 
tiny  intestinal  parasite  common  in  most  tropical 
and  subtropical  regions  and  probably  brought 


74  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

from  Africa  or  the  West  Indies  by  the  negro.  The 
Rockefeller  Foundation  is  now  spending  nearly 
$300,000  a  year  in  financing,  wholly  or  in  part,  at 
tempts  to  eradicate  the  disease  in  eight  Southern 
States  and  in  fifteen  foreign  countries. 

The  parasite  enters  the  body  from  polluted  soil, 
usually  through  the  feet,  as  a  large  part  of  the  rural 
population  goes  barefoot  in  the  summer;  it  makes 
its  way  to  the  intestinal  canal,  where  it  fixes  itself, 
grows,  and  lays  eggs  which  are  voided  and  hatch  in 
the  soil.  Since  most  country  districts  are  without 
sanitary  closets,  reinfection  may  occur  again  and 
again,  until  an  individual  harbors  a  host  of  these 
tiny  bloodsuckers,  which  interfere  with  his  diges 
tion  and  sap  his  vitality.  It  is  now  believed  that 
the  morbid  appetites  of  the  "clay  eaters"  are  due 
to  this  infection.  The  fact  that  the  negro  who  in 
troduced  the  curse  is  less  susceptible  to  the  infec 
tion  and  is  less  affected  by  it  than  the  white  man  is 
one  of  life's  ironies. 

There  is  a  brighter  side  to  this  picture,  however. 
Of  all  the  cultivated  land  in  the  South  65  per  cent 
is  worked  by  owners  (white  60.6  per  cent;  colored 
4.4  per  cent)  and  this  land  is  on  the  whole  much 
better  tilled  than  that  let  to  tenants.  It  is  true 
that  some  of  the  landowners  are  chronically  in  debt, 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND  75 

burdened  with  mortgages  and  with  advances  for 
supplies.  Some  of  them  probably  produce  less  to 
the  acre  than  tenants  working  under  close  super 
vision,  but  the  percentage  of  farms  mortgaged  is 
less  in  the  South  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  coun 
try  except  the  Mountain  Division,  and  unofficial 
testimony  indicates  that  few  farms  are  lost  through 
foreclosure. 

For  years  the  agricultural  colleges  and  the  ex 
periment  stations  offeredgoocTadvice  to  the^South- 
ern  farmer,  but  they  reached  only  a  small  propor 
tion.  Their  bulletins  had  a  small  circulation  and 
were  so  full  of  technical  expressions  as  to  be  almost 
unintelligible  to  the  average  farmer.  Recently 
the  writers  have  attempted  to  make  themselves 
more  easily  understood,  and  the  usefulness  of  their 
publications  has  consequently  increased.  The  bul 
letins  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  are  read 
in  increasing  numbers,  and  several  agricultural 
papers  have  a  wide  circulation.  The  "farmer's 
institutes"  where  experts  in  various  lines  speak 
on  their  specialties  are  well  attended,  and  the  ex 
perimental  farms  to  which  few  visitors  came  at 
first  are  now  popular. 

Two  other  agencies  are  doing  much  for  agricul 
tural  betterment.  One  is  the  county  demonstrator, 


76  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

and  the  other  boys'  and  girls'  clubs.  Both  are 
due  to  the  foresight  and  wisdom  of  the  late  Dr. 
Seaman  A.  Knapp,of  the  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture.  As  early  as  1903  Dr.  Knapp  had 
been  showing  by  practical  demonstration  how  the 
farmers  of  Texas  might  circumvent  the  boll  weevil, 
which  was  threatening  to  make  an  end  of  cotton- 
growing  in  that  State.  He  was  able  to  increase 
the  yield  of  cotton  on  a  pest-ridden  farm.  The 
idea  of  the  boys'  corn  club  was  not  new  when  Dr. 
Knapp  took  it  up  in  1908  and  made  it  a  nation 
al  institution.  The  girls'  canning  club  was  soon 
added  to  the  list,  and  then  came  the  pig  club  for 
boys  and  the  poultry  club  for  girls. 

The  General  Education  Board,  which,  with  its 
large  resources,  had  been  seeking  the  best  way  to 
aid  education  in  the  South,  was  forced  to  the  con 
clusion  that  any  educational  development  must  be 
preceded  by  economic  improvement.  The  farm 
production  of  the  South  was  less  than  that  of  other 
sections,  and  until  this  production  could  be  in 
creased,  taxation,  no  matter  how  heavy,  could  not 
provide  sufficient  money  for  really  efficient  schools. 
After  a  study  of  the  whole  field  of  agricultural 
education,  the  ideas  of  Dr.  Knapp  were  adopted 
as  the  basis  of  the  work  and,  by  arrangement  mi th 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          77 

the  Department  of  Agriculture,  Dr.  Knapp  himself 
was  placed  in  charge.  The  appropriations  to  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  had  been  made  for  the 
extermination  or  circumvention  of  the  boll  wee 
vil  and  could  not  be  used  for  purely  educational 
work  in  States  where  the  weevil  had  not  appeared. 
A  division  of  territory  was  now  made:  the  Depart 
ment  financed  demonstration  work  in  those  States 
affected  by  the  pest  and  the  General  Education 
Board  bore  the  expense  in  the  other  States.  En 
tire  supervision  of  the  work  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  Department  of  Agriculture,  which  made  all 
appointments  and  disbursed  all  funds.  The  Board 
furnished  funds  but  assumed  no  authority.  The 
history  issued  by  the  General  Education  Board 
says:  "Dr.  Knapp  endeavored  to  teach  his  hearers 
not  only  how  to  raise  cotton  and  corn,  but  how  to 
conduct  farming  as  a  business  —  how  to  ascertain 
the  cost  of  a  crop,  how  to  find  out  whether  they 
were  making  or  losing  money.  As  rapidly  as  pos 
sible  the  scope  was  broadened  for  the  purpose  of 
making  the  farmer  more  and  more  independent. 
He  was  stimulated  to  raise  stock,  to  produce  feed 
and  forage  for  his  stock,  and  to  interest  himself  in 
truck  gardening,  hog-raising,  etc." 

The  method  used  was  to  appoint  county,  district, 


78  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

and  state  demonstration  agents  who  would  in 
duce  different  farmers  to  cultivate  a  limited  area 
according  to  specific  directions.  As  these  agents 
were  appointed  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 
the  farmer  was  flattered  by  being  singled  out  by 
the  Government.  In  most  cases  the  results  of  the 
experiments  were  far  superior  to  those  which  the 
farmer  had  obtained  merely  by  following  tradition, 
and  he  usually  applied  the  successful  methods  to 
his  whole  farm.  Some  of  his  neighbors,  who  visited 
the  demonstration  plot  to  scoff  at  the  idea  that  any 
one  in  Washington  could  teach  a  farmer  how  to 
grow  cotton  or  corn,  were  wise  enough  to  recognize 
the  improvement  and  to  follow  the  directions. 
Every  successful  demonstration  farm  was  thus  a 
center  of  influence,  and  the  work  was  continued 
after  Dr.  Knapp's  death  under  the  charge  of  his 
son,  Bradford  Knapp. 

The  idea  of  the  boys'  corn  club  was  vitalized  in 
1908  by  Dr.  Knapp,  who  planned  to  establish  a 
corn  club  in  every  neighborhood,  with  county  and 
state  organizations.  Each  boy  was  to  cultivate  a 
measured  acre  of  land  in  corn,  according  to  direc 
tions  and  keep  a  strict  account  of  the  cost.  The 
work  of  his  father,  or  of  a  hired  man,  in  ploughing 
the  land  must  be  charged  against  the  plot  at  the 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          79 

market  rate.  Manure,  or  fertilizer,  and  seed  were 
likewise  to  be  charged,  but  the  main  work  of  culti 
vation  was  to  be  done  by  the  boy  himself.  The  crop 
was  to  be  measured  by  two  disinterested  witnesses 
who  should  certify  to  the  result.  Local  pride  was 
depended  upon  to  furnish  prizes  for  the  county  or 
ganization,  but  the  most  successful  boys  in  every 
State  were  to  be  taken  on  a  trip  to  Washington, 
there  to  shake  hands  with  the  Secretary  of  Agri 
culture  and  the  President.  This  appeal  to  the 
imagination  of  youth  was  a  master  touch. 

Thousands  of  boys  were  interested  and  achieved 
results  which  were  truly  startling.  In  every  State 
the  average  yield  from  the  boys'  acres  was  larger 
than  the  state  average,  in  some  cases  almost  five 
times  as  great.  One  South  Carolina  boy  produced 
on  his  acre  in  1910  over  228  bushels,  and  in  1913  an 
Alabama  boy  reached  high-water  mark  with  nearly 
233  bushels.  Hundreds  of  boys  produced  over  100 
bushels  to  the  acre,  and  the  average  of  the  boys 
in  South  Carolina  was  nearly  69  bushels,  compared 
with  an  average  of  less  than  20  for  the  adult  farmers. 
The  pig  clubs  which  followed  have  likewise  been 
successful  and  have  stimulated  an  interest  in  good 
stock  and  proper  methods  of  caring  for  it.  Many 
country  banks  have  financed  these  operations  by 


80  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

buying  hogs  by  the  carload  and  selling  to  the  club 
members  on  easy  terms. 

Girls'  canning  clubs  were  organized  by  Dr.  Knapp 
in  1910.     Girls  were  encouraged  to  plant  a  tenth  of 

an  acre  in  tomatoes.     Trained  demonstrators  then 

j 

traveled  from  place  to  place  and  showed  them  how 
to  use  portable  canning  outfits.  The  girls  tnet, 
first  at  one  house  and  then  at  another,  to  preserve 
their  tomatoes,  and  soon  they  began  to  preserve 
many  other  vegetables  and  fruits.  Two  gi/rls  in 
Tennessee  are  said  to  have  preserved  126  different 
varieties  of  food.  Some  of  these  clubs  have  gained 
more  than  a  local  reputation  for  their  products  and 
have  been  able  to  sell  their  whole  output  to  hotels 
or  to  institutions.  Though  the  monetary  gain  has 
been  worth  something,  the  addition  to  the  limited 
dietary  of  the  homes  has  been  worth  more,  and  the 
social  influence  of  these  clubs  has  been  considerable. 
The  small  farmer  in  the  South  is  not  a  social  being, 
and  anything  which  makes  for  cooperation  is  valu 
able.  The  poultry  clubs  which  were  an  exten 
sion  of  the  canning  club  idea  have  been  successful. 
The  club  idea,  indeed,  has  been  extended  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  South.  Congress,  recognizing  its 
value,  has  taken  over  and  extended  the  work  and 
has  supported  it  liberally.  Today  market-garden 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          81 

clubs  for  the  manufacturing  cities,  potato  clubs, 
mother-and-daughter  clubs,  and  perhaps  others 
have  grown  out  of  the  vision  of  Dr.  Knapp. 

Though  these  activities  have  had  a  great  effect  in 
improving  the  South,  that  section  has  not  yet  been 
transformed  into  an  Eden.  In  spite  of  farm  de 
monstrations,  experiment  stations,  and  boys'  and 
girls'  clubs,  the  stubborn  inertia  of  a  rural  popula 
tion  fixed  on  the  soil  has  only  been  shocked,  not 
routed.  Much  land  is  barely  scratched  instead  of 
being  ploughed  deep;  millions  of  acres  bear  no 
cover  crops  but  lose  their  fertility  through  the 
leaching  of  valuable  constituents  during  the  winter. 
Fertilizer  is  bought  at  exorbitant  prices,  while  the 
richness  of  the  barnyard  goes  to  waste,  and  legumes 
are  neglected;  land  is  allowed  to  wash  into  gullies 
which  soon  become  ravines.  Farms  which  would 
produce  excellent  corn  and  hay  are  supplied  with 
these  products  from  the  Middle  West;  millions  of 
pounds  of  Western  pork  are  consumed  in  regions 
where  hogs  can  be  easily  and  cheaply  raised ;  butter 
from  Illinois  or  Wisconsin  is  brought  to  sections 
admirably  adapted  to  dairying;  and  apples  from 
Oregon  and  honey  from  Ohio  are  sold  in  the  towns. 
In  several  typical  counties  an  average  of  $4,000,000 
was  sent  abroad  for  products  which  could  easily 


82  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

have  been  raised  at  home.  In  Texas  some  of  th 
bankers  have  been  refusing  credit  to  supply  mer 
chants  who  do  not  encourage  the  production  of 
food  crops  as  well  as  cotton.1 

Throughout  the  South  there  are  thousands  of 
homes  into  which  no  newspaper  comes,  certainly 
no  agricultural  paper,  and  in  which  there  are  few 
books,  except  perhaps  school  books.  The  cooking 
is  sometimes  done  with  a  few  simple  utensils  over 
the  open  fire.  Water  must  be  brought  from  a 
spring  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  at  an  expenditure  of 
strength  and  endurance.  The  cramped  house  has 
no  conveniences  to  lighten  labor  or  to  awaken 
pride.  The  overworked  wife  and  mother  has  no 
social  life,  except  perhaps  attendance  at  the  serv 
ices  at  the  country  church  to  which  the  family 
rides  in  a  springless  wagon.  Such  families  see  their 
neighbors  prosper  without  attempting  to  discover 
the  secret  for  themselves.  Blank  fatalism  pos 
sesses  them.  They  do  not  realize  that  they  could 
prosper.  New  methods  of  cultivation,  they  think, 
are  not  for  them  since  they  have  no  capital  to 
purchase  machinery. 

On  the  other  hand,  one  sees  more  Ford  cars  than 


1  An  illuminating  series  of  studies  of  rural  life  is  being  issued  by 
the  Bureau  of  Extension  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina. 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND  83 

teams  at  many  country  churches,  and  many  larger 
automobiles  as  well.  Some  Southern  States  are 
spending  millions  for  better  roads,  and  the  farmer 
or  his  son  or  daughter  can  easily  run  into  town  in 
the  afternoon  carrying  a  little  produce  which  more 
than  pays  for  any  purchases.  Tractors  are  seen  at 
work  here  and  there,  and  agricultural  machinery 
is  under  the  sheds.  Many  houses  have  private 
water  systems  and  a  few  farmers  have  harnessed  the 
brooks  for  electric  lights.  The  gas  engine  which 
pumps  the  water  runs  the  corn  sheller  or  the  wood 
saw.  The  rural  telephone  spreads  like  a  web  over 
the  countryside.  Into  these  houses  the  carrier 
brings  the  daily  or  semi- weekly  paper  from  the 
neighboring  town,  agricultural  journals,  and  some 
magazines  of  national  circulation;  a  piano  stands 
in  the  parlor;  and  perhaps  a  college  pennant  or  two 
hang  somewhere,  for  many  farm  boys  and  girls  go 
to  college.  In  spite  of  the  short  terms  of  the  public 
schools,  many  manage  to  get  some  sort  of  prepara 
tion  for  college,  and  in  the  South  more  college  stu 
dents  come  from  farm  homes  than  from  town  or 
city.  This  encouraging  picture  is  true,  no  less 
than  the  other,  and  the  number  of  such  progressive 
farm  homes  is  fortunately  growing  larger. 

A  greater  range  of  products  is  being  cultivated 


84  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

throughout  the  South,  though  more  cotton  and 
tobacco  are  being  produced  than  ever  before.  The 
output  of  corn,  wheat,  hay,  and  pork  has  increased 
in  recent  years,  though  the  section  is  not  yet  self- 
sufficient.  The  growing  of  early  vegetables  and 
fruits  for  Northern  markets  is  a  flourishing  indus 
try  in  some  sections  where  land  supposedly  almost 
worthless  has  been  found  to  be  admirably  adapted 
for  this  purpose.  An  increasing  acreage  in  various 
legumes  not  only  furnishes  forage  but  enriches  the 
soil.  Silos  are  to  be  seen  here  and  there,  and  there 
are  some  excellent  herds  of  dairy  cattle,  though  the 
scarcity  of  reliable  labor  makes  this  form  of  farm 
ing  hazardous.  The  cattle  tick  is  being  conquered, 
and  more  beef  is  being  produced.  Thoroughbred 
hogs  and  poultry  are  common. 

With  the  great  rise  in  the  price  of  the  farmer's 
products  since  1910,  the  man  who  farms  with 
knowledge  and  method  is  growing  prosperous. 
Farmers  are  taking  advantage  of  the  Federal  Farm 
Loan  Act  and  are  paying  off  many  mortgages.  The 
necessity  of  asking  for  credit  is  diminishing,  and 
men  have  contracted  to  buy  land  and  have  paid  for 
it  from  the  first  crop.  While  the  things  the  farmer 
must  buy  have  risen  in  price,  his  products  have 
risen  even  higher  in  value ;  and  in  those  sections  of 


THE  FARMER  AND  THE  LAND          85 

the  South  suited  to  mixed  farming  there  need  be 
comparatively  little  outgo. 

One  is  tempted  to  hope  that  the  lane  has  turned 
for  the  Southern  farmer.  Partly  owing  to  his  ignor 
ance  and  inertia,  partly  to  circumstances  difficult 
to  overcome,  his  lot  after  1870  was  not  easy,  and 
from  1870  to  1910  is  a  full  generation.  An  in 
dividual  who  grew  to  manhood  on  a  Southern  farm 
during  that  period  may  be  excused  for  a  gloomy 
outlook  upon  the  world.  He  finds  it  difficult  to 
believe  that  prosperity  has  arrived,  or  that  it  will 
last.  The  number  who  have  been  convinced  of 
the  brighter  outlook,  however,  is  increasing. 


CHAPTER  V 

INDUSTRIAL    DEVELOPMENT 

THOUGH  the  Old  South  was  in  the  main  agricultural 
it  was  not  entirely  destitute  of  industrial  skill. 
i  The  recent  industrial  development  is  really  a  revi 
val,  not  a  revolution,  in  some  parts  of  the  South. 
In  1810,  according  to  Tench  Coxe's  semi-official 
Statement  of  Arts  and  Manufactures,  the  value  of 
the  textile  products  of  North  Carolina  was  greater 
than  that  of  Massachusetts.  Every  farmhouse 
had  spinning-wheels  and  one  loom  or  several  on 
which  the  women  of  the  family  spun  yarn  and  wove 
cloth  for  the  family  wardrobe.  On  the  large  plan 
tations  negro  women  produced  much  of  the  cloth 
for  both  slaves  and  family.  Except  on  special  oc 
casions,  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  clothing 
worn  by  the  average  Southern  community  was  of 
household  or  local  manufacture.  Hats  were  made 
of  fur,  wool,  or  plaited  straw.  Hides  were  tanned 
on  the  plantations  or  more  commonly  at  a  local 

86 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  87 

tannery  and  were  made  into  shoes  by  local  cobblers, 
white  or  black. 

Local  cabinet-makers  made  furniture,  all  of  it 
strong,  and  some  of  it  good  in  line  and  finish. 
Many  of  the  pieces  sold  by  dealers  in  antiques  in 
the  great  cities  as  coming  from  Europe  by  way  of 
the  South  were  made  by  cabinet-makers  in  South 
ern  villages  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury.  Farm  wagons  as  well  as  carriages  with 
some  pretensions  to  elegance*  were  made  in  local 
shops.  In  fact,  up  to  1810  or  1820  it  seemed  that 
the  logical  development  of  one  or  two  of  the  South 
Atlantic  States  would  be  into  frugal  manufacturing 
commonwealths.  Few  of  the  thousands  of  small 
shops  developed  into  real  manufacturing  establish 
ments,  however,  though  many  continued  to  exist. 
The  belief  in  the  profits  apparently  to  be  made 
from  the  cultivation  of  cotton  and  tobacco  changed 
the  ideals  of  the  people.  To  own  a  plantation  on 
which  he  might  lead  a  patriarchal  existence 
the  ambition  of  the  successful  man.  Even  the 
lawyer,  the  doctor,  or  the  merchant  was  likely  to 
own  a  plantation  to  which  he  expected  to  retire,  if 
indeed  he  did  not  already  live  on  it  while  he  en 
gaged  in  his  other  occupation.  As  the  century 
went  on,  the  section  began  to  depend  more  and 


88  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

more  upon  other  parts  of  the  country  or  upon 
Europe  to  supply  its  wants,  and  general  interest  in 
Southern  industries  began  to  wane. 

Textile  establishments  had  appeared  early  in 
the  century.  The  first  cotton  mill  in  North  Caro 
lina  was  built  in  1810  and  one  in  Georgia  about 
the  same  time.  Much  of  the  machinery  for  the 
former  was  built  by  local  workmen.  Other  mills 
were  built  in  the  succeeding  years  until  in  1860 
there  were  about  160  in  the  Southern  States,  with 
300,000  spindles,  and  a  yearly  product  worth 
more  than  $8,000,000.  The  establishments  were 
small,  less  than  one-third  the  average  size  of  the 
mills  in  New  England,  and  few  attempted  to 
supply  more  than  the  local  demand  for  coarse  yarn 
which  the  country  women  knit  into  socks  or  wove 
into  cloth.  The  surplus  was  peddled  from  wagons 
in  adjoining  counties  or  even  in  a  neighboring 
State.  Little  attempt  was  made  to  seek  a  wider 
outlet,  and  many  of  these  mills  could  supply  the 
small  local  demand  by  running  only  a  few  months 
in  the  year. 

During  the  Civil  War,  however,  these  mills  were 
worked  to  their  full  capacity.  At  the  cessation  of 
hostilities  many  mills  were  literally  worn  out;  others 
were  destroyed  by  the  invading  armies;  and  fewer 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  89 

were  in  operation  in  1870  than  before  the  War. 
During  the  next  decade,  hope  of  industrial  success 
began  to  return  to  the  South.  The  mills  in  opera 
tion  were  making  some  money;  the  high  price  of 
cotton  had  brought  money  into  the  section;  and  a 
few  men  had  saved  enough  to  revive  the  industry. 
Old  mills  were  enlarged,  and  new  mills  were  built. 
The  number  in  operation  in  1880  was  about  the 
same  as  in  1860,  but  the  number  of  spindles  was 
nearly  twice  as  great. 

The  Cotton  Exposition  at  Atlanta  in  1881  and 
the  New  Orleans  Exposition  in  1884  gave  an  im 
petus  to  the  construction  of  mills.  There  were 
prophecies  of  future  success  in  the  industry,  though 
some  self-appointed  guardians  of  the  South  proved, 
to  their  own  satisfaction  at  least,  that  neither  the 
section  nor  the  people  were  adapted  to  the  manu 
facture  of  cotton  and  that  all  their  efforts  should  be 
devoted  to  the  production  of  raw  material  for  the 
mills  of  New  England.  Difficulties  were  magnified 
and  advantages  were  minimized  by  those  whose 
interests  were  opposed  to  Southern  industrial  devel 
opment,  but  the  movement  had  now  gained  mo 
mentum  and  was  not  to  be  stopped.  Timidly  and 
hesitantly,  capital  for  building  mills  was  scraped 
together  in  dozens  of  Southern  communities,  and 


90  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

the  number  of  spindles  was  doubled  between  1880 
and  1885  and  continued  to  increase. 

In  developing  this  Southern  industry  there  were 
many  difficulties  to  be  overcome,  and  mistakes  were 
sometimes  made.  Seduced  by  apparent  cheapness, 
many  of  the  new  mills  bought  machinery  which  the 
New  England  mills  had  discarded  for  better  pat 
terns,  or  because  of  a  change  of  product.  Opera 
tives  had  to  be  drawn  from  the  farms  and  needed  to 
be  trained  not  only  to  work  in  the  mills  but  also  to 
habits  of  regularity  and  punctuality.  The  New 
England  overseers  who  were  imported  for  this  pur 
pose  sometimes  failed  in  dealing  with  these  new 
recruits  to  industrialism  because  of  inability  to 
make  due  allowance  for  their  limitations.  Accus 
tomed  to  the  truck  system  in  agriculture,  the  man 
agers  often  paid  wages  in  scrip  always  good  for 
supplies  at  the  company  store  but  redeemable  in 
cash  only  at  infrequent  intervals.  The  operatives 
therefore  sometimes  found  that  they  had  exchanged 
one  sort  of  economic  dependence  for  another.  An 
other  difficulty  was  that  a  place  for  Southern  yarn 
and  Southern  cloth  had  to  be  gained  in  the  market, 
and  this  was  difficult  of  accomplishment  for  the 
product  was  often  not  up  to  the  Northern  standard. 

Managing  ability,  however,  was  found  not  to  be 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  91 

so  rare  in  the  South  as  had  been  supposed.  Some 
of  the  managers,  drawn  perhaps  from  the  village 
store,  the  small  town  bank,  or  the  farm,  succeeded 
so  well  in  the  broader  field  that  others  were  encour 
aged  to  seek  similar  industrial  success.  As  the 
construction  of  new  mills  went  on,  the  temper  of 
the  South  Atlantic  States  began  to  change.  The 
people  began  to  believe  in  Southern  industrial  de 
velopment  and  to  be  eager  to  invest  their  savings 
in  something  other  than  a  land  mortgage.  An  in 
stalment  plan  by  which  the  savings  of  the  peo 
ple,  small  individually  but  large  in  the  aggregate, 
were  united,  furnished  capital  for  mills  in  scores  of 
towns  and  villages.  In  1890  there  were  nearly  a 
million  and  three-quarters  spindles  in  the  South 
compared  with  less  than  six  hundred  thousand  ten 
years  before. 

It  seemed  as  though  nearly  every  mill  was  profit 
able,  and  the  occasional  failures  did  not  seriously 
check  the  movement,  which  developed  about  1900 
almost  into  a  craze  in  some  parts  of  the  South.  In 
these  sections  every  town  talked  of  building  one 
millr-or-moTeT TOTmachine  shops_of  the  North, 
which  had  "Been  cold  or  at  least  indifferent  to 
Southern~develbpment,  woke  up,  as  Southern  mills 
began  to  double  or  triple  their  equipment  out  of 


92  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

their  profits.  Agents  were  sent  to  the  South  to 
encourage  the  building  of  new  mills,  and  to  give 
advice  and  aid  in  planning  them.  The  new  mill- 
owners  were  good  customers.  They  had  learned 
wisdom  by  the  mistakes  of  the  pioneers,  and  they 
demanded  the  best  machinery  with  all  the  latest 
devices.  Long  credit  was  now  freely  offered  by 
Northern  manufacturers  of  machinery,  and  some 
of  them  even  subscribed  for  stock  —  to  be  paid, 
of  course,  in  machinery. 

The  Northern  textile  manufacturers  also  woke 
up.  They  found  that  in  coarse  yarns  the  Southern 
mills  were  successfully  competing  with  their  prod 
ucts.  Some  pessimistic  representatives  of  the  in 
dustry  in  the  North  prophesied  that  the  Southern 
mills  would  soon  control  the  market.  Some  New 
England  mills  built  branch  mills  in  the  South;  some 
turned  to  the  finer  yarns ;  and  some  sought  to  throw 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  their  competitors.  It  has 
been  freely  charged  by  many  Southerners  that  New 
England  manufacturers  bore  the  expense  of  labor 
organizers  in  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  unionize 
the  Southern  mill  operatives.  It  has  also  been 
charged  that  the  propaganda  for  legislation  restrict 
ing  the  hours  of  labor  and  the  age  of  operatives  in 
Southern  mills  was  financed  to  some  extent  by  New 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  93 

England  manufacturers,  and  that  the  writers  of 
the  many  lurid  accounts  purporting  to  describe 
conditions  in  Southern  mills  received  pay  from  the 
same  source. 

The  system  of  paying  for  stock  on  the  instalment 
plan  permitted  the  construction  of  many  mills  for 
which  capital  could  not  have  been  raised  otherwise 
and  had  also  certain  distinct  social  consequences. 
According  to  this  plan,  the  subscriptions  to  the 
stock  were  made  payable  in  weekly  instalments  of 
50  cents  or  $1.00  a  share,  thus  requiring  approxi 
mately  two  or  four  years  to  complete  payment. 
Those  having  money  in  hand  might.pay  in  full,  less 
six  per  cent  discount  for  the  average  time.  Since 
almost  or  quite  a  year  was  usually  necessary  to 
build  the  mill  and  the  necessary  tenements  for  the 
hands,  the  instalments  more  than  paid  this  item  of 
expense.  The  weekly  receipts  and  the  payments 
in  full  were  kept  in  a  local  bank,  which  also  ex 
pected  future  business  and  was  therefore  likely  to 
be  liberal  when  credit  was  demanded.  Often  the 
officers  and  directors  of  the  bank  were  also  per 
sonally  interested  in  the  new  enterprise.  The 
machinery  manufacturers  gave  long  credit  and 
often  took  stock  in  the  mill.  Commission  houses 
which  sold  yarns  and  cloth  also  took  stock  with 


94  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

the  expectation  of  controlling  the  marketing  of 
the  product. 

Many  mills  built  on  this  plan  were  so  profitable 
that  they  were  able  to  pay  for  a  considerable  part 
of  the  machinery  from  the  profits  long  before  the 
last  instalment  was  paid,  and  some  even  paid  a 
dividend  or  two  in  addition.  Such  mills  started 
operations  with  many  things  in  their  favor.  The 
ownership  was  widely  distributed,  since  it  was  not 
at  all  uncommon  for  a  hundred  thousand  dollar 
mill  to  have  a  hundred  or  more  stockholders,  some 
of  whom  held  only  one  or  two  shares.  Further, 
since  the  amount  of  money  paid  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  for  wages,  fuel,  and  raw  material  was 
large,  every  one  was  disposed  to  aid  the  enterprise 
in  every  way  possible.  Town  limits  were  often 
changed  almost  by  common  consent  in  order  to 
throw  a  mill  outside  so  that  it  would  not  be  subject 
to  town  taxes.  Where  the  state  constitutions  per 
mitted,  taxes  on  the  mill  were  even  remitted"  for 
a  term  of  years.  Where  this  could  not  be  done, 
assessors  were  lenient  and  usually  assessed  mill 
property  at  much  less  than  its  real  value. 

Not  only  did  some  Northern  corporations  build 
branch  mills  in  the  South,  but  a  considerable 
amount  of  Northern  capital  was  invested  in  mills 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  95 

under  the  management  of  Southern  men.  It  is  of 
course  impossible  to  discover  the  residence  of  every 
stockholder,  but  enough  is  known  to  support  the 
assertion  that  the  proportion  of  Northern  capital  is 
comparatively  small.  The  greater  part  of  the  in 
vestment  in  Southern  mills  has  come  from  the  sav 
ings  of  Southern  people  or  has  been  earned  by  the 
mills  themselves.  Lately  several  successful  mills 
have  been  bought  by  large  department  stores  and 
mail-order  houses,  in  order  to  supply  them  with 
goods  either  for  the  counter  directly  or  else  for 
the  manufacture  of  sheets,  pillowcases,  underwear, 
and  the  like.  Marshall  Field  and  Company  of 
Chicago,  for  example,  own  several  mills  in  North 
Carolina. 

The  mills  of  the  South  have  continued  to  increase 
until  they  are  now  much  more  numerous  than  in 
the  North.  They  (are  smaller  in  size,  however,  for 
in  1915  the  number  of  spindles  in  the  cotton-grow 
ing  States  was  12,711,000  compared  with  19,396,- 
000  in  all  other  States.  The  consumption  of  cotton 
was  nevertheless  much  greater  in  the  South  and 
amounted  to  3,414,000  bales,  compared  with  2,770,- 
000  bales  in  the  other  States.  This  difference  is 
explained  by  the  fact  that  Southern  mills  gener 
ally  spin  coarser  yarn  and  may  therefore  easily 


96  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

consume  twice  or  even  three  times  as  much  cotton 
as  mills  of  the  same  number  of  spindles  engaged  in 
spinning  finer  yarn.  Some  Southern  mills,  how 
ever,  spin  very  fine  yarn  from  either  Egyptian  or 
sea-island  cotton,  but  time  is  required  to  educate 
a  considerable  body  of  operatives  competent  to  do 
the  more  delicate  tasks,  while  less  skillful  workers 
are  able  to  produce  the  coarser  numbers. 

Southern  mills  have  paid  high  dividends  in  the 
past  and  have  also  greatly  enlarged  their  plants 
from  their  earnings.  They  had,  years  ago,  several 
advantages,  some  of  which  persist  to  the  present 
day.  The  cost  of  the  raw  material  was  less  where 
a  local  supply  of  cotton  could  be  obtained,  since 
freight  charges  were  saved  by  purchase  in  the 
neighborhood;  land  and  buildings  for  plant  and 
tenements  cost  less  than  in  the  North;  fuel  was, 
cheaper;  water  power  was  often  utilized,  though 
sometimes  this  saving  was  offset  by  the  cost  of 
transportation;  taxes  were  lower;  the  rate  of 
wages  was  lower;  there  was  little  or  no  restriction 
of  the  conditions  of  employment;  and  there  were 
comparatively  few  labor  troubles. 

With  the  great  growth  of  the^imiu_sjtry_,  however, 
some  of  these  early  advajilages-liave^disappeared. 
Many  mills  can  no  longer  depend  upon  the  local 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  97 

supply  of  cotton,  and  thejfreight  charge  from  the 
Lower  South  is  as  high  as  the  rate  by  water  to  New 
England  or  even  higher;  the  transportation  of  the 
finished  product  t«  Northern  markets  is  an  addi 
tional  expense;  wages  have  risen  with  the  growth 
of  the  industry  and  are  approaching  closely,  if  they 
have  not  reached,  the  rate  per  unit  of  product  paid 
in  other  sections.  The  cost  of  fuel  has  increased, 
although  in  some  localities  the  development  of 
hydro-electric  power  has  reduced  this  item.  All  the 
States  have  imposed  restrictions  upon  the  employ 
ment  of  women  and  children  in  the  mills,  particu 
larly  at  night.  On  the  other  hand,  taxes  remain 
lower,  the  cost  of  building  is  less,  and  strikes  and 
other  forms  of  industrial  friction  are  still  uncom 
mon.  When  well  managed,  the  Southern  mills  are 
still  extremely  profitable,  but  margin  for  error  in 
management  has  become  less. 

The  Southern  mills  are  chiefly  to  be  found  in 
four  States,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Geor 
gia,  and  Alabama,  and  in  the  hill  country  of  these 
States,  though  a  few  large  mills  are  situated  in 
the  lowlands.  North  Carolina,  with  over  three 
hundred  mills,  has  more  than  any  other  State, 
North  or  South,  and  consumes  more  cotton  than 
any  other  Southern  State  —  over  a  million  bales. 


98  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

South  Carolina,  however,  has  more  spindles,  the 
average  size  of  its  mills  is  larger,  and  it  spins  more 
fine  yarn.  North  Carolina  is  second  only  to  Massa 
chusetts  in  the  value  of  its  cotton  products,  South 
Carolina  comes  third,  Georgia  fourth,  and  Alabama 
eighth.  Virginia  and  Tennessee  are  lower  on  the 
list.  In  quantity  of  cotton  consumed,  the  cotton 
growing  States  passed  all  others  in  1905;  and  in 
1916  the  consumption  was  twenty-five  per  cent 
greater,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  New  England  had 
been  increasing  her  spindles.  Some  Southern  mills 
are  built  in  cities,  but  usually  they  are  in  the  smaller 
towns  and  in  little  villages  which  have  grown  up 
around  the  mills  and  owe  their  existence  to  them. 
There  is  some  localization  of  industry :  a  very  large 
number  of  mills,  for  instance,  may  be  found  in  a 
radius  of  one  hundred  miles  from  Charlotte,  North 
Carolina,  and  one  North  Carolina  county  has  more 
than  fifty  mills,  though  the  total  number  of  spin 
dles  in  that  county^  is  not  much  greater  than  in 
some  single  New  England  establishment. 

In  the  allied  knitting  industry  the  production 
of  the  South  is  increasing  in  importance.  North 
Carolina  led  the  South  in  1914,  with  Tennessee, 

Georgia,  Virginia,  following  in  the  order  named. 

» 

Though  most  of  the  establishments  are  small,  some 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  99 

are  important  and  are  establishing  a  wide  reputa 
tion  for  their  product.  Generally  they  are  situ 
ated  in  the  towns  where  cotton  mills  have  already 
been  located. 

The  textile  industry,  though  it  is  the  most  im 
portant,  is  not  the  only  great  industrial  enterprise 
in  the  New  South.  Two  others,  both  in  a  way  the 
by-products  of  cotton,  deserve  attention.  Only  a 
few  years  ago  cotton  seed  was  considered  a  nui 
sance.  A  small  quantity  was  fed  to  stock;  a  some 
what  larger  quantity  was  composted  with  stable 
manure  and  used  for  fertilizer;  but  the  greater  part 
was  left  to  rot  or  was  even  dumped  into  the  streams 
which  ran  the  gins.  Since  the  discovery  of  the 
value  of  cottonseed  products,  the  industry  has 
grown  rapidly.  The  oil  is  now  used  in  cooking,  is 
mixed  with  olive  oil,  is  sold  pure  for  salad  oil,  and 
is  an  important  constituent  of  oleomargarine,  lard 
substitutes,  and  soap,  to  name  only  a  few  of  the 
uses  to  which  it  is  put.  The  cake,  or  meal  from 
which  the  oil  has  been  pressed,  is  rich  in  nitrogen 
and  is  therefore  valuable  as  fertilizer;  it  is  also  a 
standard  food  for  cattle,  and  tentative  experiments 
with  it  have  even  been  made  as  a  food  for  human 
beings.  The  hulls  have  also  considerable  value  as 
cattle  food,  and  from  them  are  obtained  annuallv 


100  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

nearly  a  million  bales  of  "linters, "  that  is,  short 
fibers  of  cotton  which  escaped  the  gin.  Since  the 
seed  is  bulky  and  the  cost  of  transportation  is  cor 
respondingly  high,  there  are  many  small  cotton 
seed  oil  mills  rather  than  a  few  large  ones.  Texas 
is  the  leader  in  this  industry,  with  Georgia  next, 
though  oil  mills  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  cotton 
States,  and  the  value  of  the  seed  adds  considerably 
to  the  income  of  every  cotton  grower.  In  1914  the 
value  of  cottonseed  products  was  $212,000,000. 

The  industry  of  making  fertilizer  depends  largely 
upon  cottonseed  meal.  More  than  a  hundred  oil 
mills  have  fertilizer  departments.  The  phosphate 
deposits  of  the  South  Atlantic  States  are  also  im 
portant,  and  the  fertilizer  industry  is  showing  more 
and  more  a  tendency  to  become  sectional.  Georgia 
easily  leads,  Maryland  is  second,  and  no  Northern 
State  ranks  higher  than  seventh. 

From  the  standpoint  of  values  lumbering  is  a 
more  important  industry  than  the  manufacture  of 
fertilizers.  In  this  respect  Louisiana  is  the  second 
State  in  value  of  products,  and  the  industry  is  im 
portant  in  Arkansas,  Mississippi,  and  North  Caro 
lina.  The  South  furnishes  nearly  half  of  the  lum 
ber  produced  in  the  United  States.  This  industry 
is,  of  course,  only  one  step  from  the  raw  material. 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT          101 : 

The  manufacture  of  wood  into  finished  articles  is, 
however,  increasing  in  some  of  the  Southern  States. , 
The  vehicle  industry  is  considerable,  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  agricultural  machinery,  railway  and 
street  cars,  and  coffins.    North  Carolina  especially  is 
taking  rank  in  the  manufacture  of  furniture,  most 
of  it  cheap  but  some  of  it  of  high  grade.    So  far,  am 
bition  has  in  few  cases  gone  beyond  utilization  of 
the  native  woods,  some  of  which  are  surprisingly 
beautiful.    Many  small  establishments  in  different 
States  make  such  special  products  as  spokes,  shuttle 
blocks,  pails,  broom  handles,  containers  for  fruits 
and  vegetables,  and  the  like,  but  the  total  value  of 
these  products  is  small  compared  with  the  value  of 
the  crude  lumber  which  is  sent  out  of  the  South. 

The  iron  industry  is  important  chiefly  in  Ala 
bama,  of  the  purely  Southern  States.  This  State 
is  fourth  in  the  product  of  its  blast  furnaces  but 
supplied  in  1914  only  a  little  more  than  six  per  cent 
of  the  total  for  the  United  States.  Virginia,  Ten 
nessee,  and  West  Virginia  produce  appreciable 
quantities  of  pig  iron;  no  Southern  State  plays  a 
really  important  part  in  the  steel  industry,  though 
Maryland,  Alabama,  and  West  Virginia  are  all 
represented.  Birmingham,  Alabama,  is  the  center 
of  steel  manufacture  and  has  been  called  the  Pitts- 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

burgh  of  the  South,  but  though  the  industry  has 
grown  rapidly  in  Birmingham,  it  has  also  grown  in 
Pittsburgh,  and  the  Southern  city  is  gaining  very 
slowly.  There  are  great  beds  of  bituminous  coal  in 
the  South,  but  only  in  West  Virginia  and  Alabama 
is  the  production  really  important,  though  Ken 
tucky,  Tennessee,  and  Virginia  produce  appreciable 
quantities. 

In  the  total  value  of  the  products  of  mines  of  all 
sorts.  West  Virginia  and  Oklahoma  are  among  the 
leaders,  owing  to  their  iron,  coal,  and  petroleum 
output.  Other  Southern  States  follow  in  the  rear. 
Alabama,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Virginia, 
Florida,  and  Louisiana  all  have  a  mineral  output 
which  is  large  in  the  aggregate  but  a  small  part  of 
the  total.  The  sulphur  mines  of  Louisiana  are 
growing  increasingly  important.  North  Carolina 
produces  a  little  of  almost  everything,  but  its  min 
eral  production,  except  of  mica,  is  not  important. 
In  this  State  large  aluminum  works  have  been  con 
structed  and  the  quantity  of  precious  and  semi 
precious  stones  found  there  is  a  large  part  of  the 
production  for  the  United  States. 

The  tobacco  industry  is  growing  rapidly  in  the 
South.  There  have  always  been  small  establish 
ments  for  the  manufacture  of  tobacco,  and  many 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  103 

of  these  during  the  last  three  decades  have  grown 
to  large  proportions.  New  establishments  have 
been  opened,  some  of  which  are  among  the  largest 
in  the  world.  The  development  of  the  American 
Tobacco  Company  and  its  affiliated  and  subsidiary 
organizations  has  greatly  reduced  the  number  of 
separate  establishments.  Many  were  bought  by 
the  combination;  their  brands  were  transferred  to 
another  factory;  and  the  original  establishments 
were  closed  as  uneconomical.  Many  other  small 
factories,  feeling  or  fearing  the  competition,  closed 
voluntarily.  But  the  total  production  of  tobacco 
has  steadily  increased.  Plug  and  smoking  tobacco 
are  largely  confined  to  the  Upper  South.  North 
Carolina  easily  leads,  while  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri  (if  it  be  classed  as  a  Southern  State) 

also  have  factories  which  are  known  all  over  the 

% 

world.  Richmond,  St.  Louis,  Louisville,  and  New 
Orleans,  and  Winstori-Salem  and  Durham  in  North 
Carolina  are  the  cities  which  lead  in  this  industry. 
Winston-Salem  probably  now  makes  more  plug, 
and  Durham  more  smoking  tobacco,  than  any 
other  cities  in  the  United  States,  and  the  cigarette 
production  of  the  former  is  increasing  enormously. 
Some  factories  supply  export  trade  almost  exclu 
sively.  There  has  been  little  development  of  the 


104  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

fine  cigar  industry  except  in  Louisiana  and  Florida, 
though  in  all  cities  of  the  Lower  South  there  are 
local  establishments  for  the  manufacture  of  cigars 
from  Cuban  leaf.  Richmond  is  a  center  for  the 
manufacture  of  domestic  cigars  and  cheroots  and 
has  one  mammoth  establishment. 

Twenty  years  or  thirty  years  ago  scattered  over 
the  South  there  were  thousands  of  small  grist  mills 
which  ground  the  farmer's  wheat  or  corn  between 
stones  in  the  old-fashioned  way.  These  are  being 
superseded  by  roller  mills,  some  of  them  quite 
large,  which  handle  all  the  local  wheat  and  even 
import  some  from  the  West.  However,  as  the 
annual  production  of  wheat  in  the  South  has  de 
creased  rather  than  increased  since  1880,  it  is  ob 
vious  that  the  industry  has  changed  in  form  rather 
than  increased  in  importance. 

There  are  other  less  important  manufacturing 
enterprises  in  the  South.  The  census  shows  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  distinct  industries  pursued 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  Maryland  ranked  four 
teenth  in  the  total  value  of  manufactured  prod 
ucts  in  1914.  Only  seven  Southern  States  were 
found  in  the  first  twenty-five,  while  Minnesota, 
which  is  generally  considered  an  agricultural 
State,  ranked  higher  in  manufactures  than  any  of 


INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT          106 

the  Southern  group  in  1914.     The  next  census  will 
undoubtedly  give  some  Southern  States  high  rank, 
though  the  section  as  a  whole  is  not  yet  industrial. 
The  manufacturing  output  is  increasing  with  mar 
velous  rapidity,  but  it  is  increasing  in  other  t 
tions  of  the  country  as  well.     Although  the  South 
was  credited  in  1914  with  an  increase  of  nearly  - 
per  cent  in  the  value  of  its  products  during  the 
decade,  its  proportion  of  the  total  value  of  products 
in  the  United  States  as  a  whole  increased  only 
from  12  8  per  cent  in  1904  to  13.1  per  cent  in  1914. 
The  section  is  still  far  from  equaling  or  surpassing 
other  sections  except  in  the  manufacture  of  textiles. 


CHAPTER  VI 

LABOR    CONDITIONS 

THE  laborer  employed  in  the  manufacturing  en 
terprises  of  the  South,  whether  white  or  black, 
is  native  born  and  Southern  born.  Sporadic  ef 
forts  to  import  industrial  workers  from  Europe 
have  not  been  successful  and  there  has  been  no 
considerable  influx  of  workers  from  other  sections 
of  the  Union.  A  few  skilled  workers  have  come, 
but  the  rank  and  file  in  all  the  factories  and  shops 
were  born  in  the  State  in  which  they  work  or  in  a 
neighboring  State.  Speaking  broadly,  those  deal 
ing  with  complicated  machines  are  white,  while 
those  engaged  in  simpler  processes  are  white  or 
black.  We  find,  therefore,  a  preponderance  of 
whites  in  the  textile  industries  and  in  the  shops  pro 
ducing  articles  from  wood  and  iron,  while  the  blacks 
are  found  in  the  lumber  industry,  in  the  tobacco 
factories,  in  the  mines,  and  at  the  blast  furnaces. 
There  are  some  skilled  workmen  among  the  negroes, 

T06 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  107 

especially  in  tobacco,  but  generally  they  furnish  the 
unskilled  labor. 

The  textile  industry  employs  the  greatest  num 
ber  of  operatives,  or  at  least  concentrates  them 
more.  From  the  farms  or  the  mountain  coves,  or 
only  one  generation  removed  from  that  environ 
ment,  they  have  been  drawn  to  the  mills  by  various 
motives.  The  South  is  still  sparsely  settled,  and 
the  life  of  the  tenant  farmer  or  the  small  landowner 
and  his  family  is  often  lonely.  Until  recently,  roads 
were  almost  universally  bad,  especially  in  winter, 
and  a  visit  to  town  or  even  to  a  neighbor  was  no 
small  undertaking.  Attendance  at  the  country 
church,  which  sometimes  has  services  only  once  a 
month,  or  a  trip  to  the  country  store  on  Saturday 
afternoon  with  an  occasional  visit  to  the  county- 
seat  furnish  almost  the  only  opportunity  for  so 
cial  intercourse.  Work  in  a  cotton  mill  promised 
not  merely  fair  wages  but  what  was  coveted  even 
more  —  companionship. 

During  the  period  of  most  rapid  growth  in  the 
textile  industry,  agriculture,  or  at  least  agriculture 

C  practiced  by  this  class,  was  unprofitable.     Dur- 
g  the  decade  from  1890  to  1900  the  price  of  all 
pnds  of  farm  produce  was  exceedingly  low,  and  the 
:urns  in  money  were  very  small.     Even  though 

1 


TOg 

r 

it, 


108  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

a  farmer  more  farsighted  than  the  average  did 
produce  the  greater  part  of  his  food  on  the  farm, 
his  "money  crop"  -cotton  or  tobacco  —  hardly 
brought  the  cost  of  production.  The  late  D.  A. 
Tompkins,  of  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  a  close 
student  of  cotton,  came  to  the  conclusion,  about 
1910,  that  cotton  had  been  produced  at  a  loss  in 
the  South  considered  as  a  whole,  at  least  since  the 
Civil  War.  Many  farmers,  however,  were  in  a  vi 
cious  economic  circle  and  could  not  escape.  If 
they  had  bought  supplies  at  the  country  store  at 
inflated  prices,  the  crops  sometimes  were  insuffi 
cient  to  pay  the  store  accounts,  and  the  balance  was 
charged  against  the  next  year's  crop.  Men  who 
did  not  go  heavily  into  debt  often  handled  less  than 
$200  in  cash  in  a  year,  and  others  found  difficulty 
in  obtaining  money  even  for  their  small  taxes.  To 
such  men  the  stories  of  $15  to  $25  earned  at  a  mill 
by  a  single  family  in  a  week  seemed  almost  fabulous. 
The  whole  family  worked  on  the  farm,  as  farmers' 
families  have  always  done,  and  it  seemed  the  natu 
ral  thing  that,  in  making  a  change,  all  should  work 
in  the  mill. 

To  those  families  moved  by  loneliness  and  those 
other  families  driven  by  an  honest  ambition  to 
better  their  economic  condition  were  added  the 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  109 

families  of  the  incapable,  the  shiftless,  the  disabled, 
and  the  widowed.  In  a  few  cases  men  came  to 
the  mills  deliberately  intending  to  exploit  their 
children,  to  live  a  life  of  ease  upon  their  earnings. 
There  were  places  for  the  younger  members  of  all 
these  families,  but  a  man  with  hands  calloused  and 
muscles  stiffened  by  the  usual  round  of  farm  work 
could  seldom  learn  a  new  trade  after  the  age  of 
forty,  no  matter  how  willing.  Often  a  cotton  mill 
is  the  only  industrial  enterprise  in  the  village,  and 
the  number  of  common  laborers  needed  is  limited. 
Too  many  of  the  fathers  who  had  come  to  the  vil 
lage  intending  themselves  to  work  gradually  sank 
into  the  parasite  class  and  sat  around  the  village 
store  while  their  children  worked. 

During  the  early  expansion  of  the  industry,  the 
wages  paid  were  low  compared  with  New  England 
standards,  but  they  were  sufficient  to  draw  the 
people  from  the  farms  and  to  hold  them  at  the 
mills.  In  considering  the  wages  paid  in  Southern 
mills,  this  fact  must  never  be  forgotten.  There 
was  always  an  abundance  of  land  to  which  the  mill 
people  could  return  at  will  and  wrest  some  sort  of 
living  from  the  soil.  For  them  to  go  back  to  the 
land  was  not  a  venture  full  of  unknown  hazards. 
They  had  been  born  on  the  land  and  even  yet  are 


110  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

usually  only  one  generation  removed,  and  the  land 
cries  out  for  tenants  and  laborers.  It  must  also  be 
remembered  that  though  the  wages  measured  in 
money  were  low,  the  cost  of  living  was  likewise  low. 
Rents  were  trifling,  if  indeed  the  tenements  were 
not  occupied  free;  the  cost  of  fuel  and  food  was 
low;  and  many  expenses  necessary  in  New  England 
were  superfluous  in  the  South. 

With  the  increasing  number  of  mills  and  the 
rising  price  of  agricultural  products,  the  supply 
of  industrial  laborers  became  less  abundant,  and 
higher  wages  have  been  necessary  to  draw  recruits 
from  the  farms  until  at  present  the  rate  of  wages 
approaches  that  of  New  England.  The  purchasing 
power  is  probably  greater  for,  while  the  cost  of  liv 
ing  has  greatly  increased  in  the  South,  it  is  still 
lower  than  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  This 
does  not  mean  that  the  average  Southern,  wage  is 
equal  to  the  New  England  average.  While  there 
is  a  growing  body  of  highly  skilled  operatives  in  the 
South,  the  rapid  growth  of  the  industry  has  made 
necessary  the  employment  of  an  overwhelming 
ly  large  number  of  untrained  or  partially  trained 
operatives,  who  cannot  tend  so  many  spindles  or 
looms  as  the  New  England  operatives.  Again, 
much  yarn  in  the  North  is  spun  upon  mules,  while 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  111 

in  the  South  these  machines  are  uncommon.  For 
certain  purposes,  this  soft  but  fine  and  even  yarn  is 
indispensable.  Only  strong,  highly  skilled  opera 
tives,  usually  men,  can  tend  these  machines.  The 
earnings  of  such  specialists  cannot  fairly  be  com 
pared  with  the  amounts  received  by  ordinary  girl 
spinners  on  ring  frames.  Again  the  weekly  wage  of 
an  expert  weaver  upon  fancy  cloth  cannot  justly  be 
compared  with  that  of  a  Southern  operative  upon 
plain  goods.  Where  the  work  is  comparable,  how 
ever,  the  rates  per  unit  of  product  in  North  and 
South  are  not  far  apart. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  employer  it  may  be 
possible  that  the  wages  per  unit  of  product  are 
higher  in  some  Southern  mills  than  in  some  New 
England  establishments.  In  the  case  of  an  expen 
sive  machine,  an  operative  who  gets  from  it  only 
sixty  to  seventy-five  per  cent  of  its  possible  pro 
duction  may  receive  higher  wages,  or  what  amounts 
to  the  same  thing,  may  produce  at  a  higher  cost  per 
unit  than  a  more  highly  paid  individual  who  more 
nearly  approaches  the  theoretical  maximum  pro 
duction  of  the  machine.  There  is  much  expensive 
machinery  in  the  Southern  mills.  In  fact,  on  the 
whole,  the  machinery  for  the  work  in  hand  is  better 
than  in  New  Ijlngland,  because  it  is  newer.  The 


112  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

recently  built  Southern  mills  have  been  equipped 
with  all  the  latest  machinery,  while  many  of  the 
older  Northern  mills  have  not  felt  able  to  scrap 
machines  which,  though  antiquated,  were  still  run 
ning  well.  However,  the  advantage  in  having  a 
better  machine  is  not  fully  realized  if  it  is  not  run 
to  its  full  capacity.  Both  spinning  frames  and 
looms  have  generally  been  run  at  a  somewhat 
slower  speed  in  the  South  than  in  the  North.  This 
fact  was  noted  by  that  careful  English  observer, 
T.  M.  Young:  "Whether  the  cost  per  unit  of  ef 
ficiency  is  greater  in  the  South  than  in  the  North 
is  hard  to  say.  But  for  the  automatic  loom,  the 
North  would,  I  think,  have  the  advantage.  Per 
haps  the  truth  is  that  in  some  parts  of  the  South 
where  the  industry  has  been  longest  established 
and  a  generation  has  been  trained  to  the  work, 
Southern  labor  is  actually  as  well  as  nominally 
cheaper  than  Northern;  whilst  in  other  districts, 
where  many  mills  have  sprung  up  all  at  once 
amongst  a  sparse  rural  population,  wholly  un 
trained,  the  Southern  labor  at  present  procur 
able  is  really  dearer  than  the  Northern."1  This 
does  not  mean  that  Southern  labor  is  perma 
nently  inferior;  but  a  highly  skilled  body  of 

1  T.  M.  Young,  The  American  Cotton  Industry,  p.  113. 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  113 

operatives    requires    years    for   its    development. 

In  the  beginning  there  were  no  restrictions  upon 
hours  of  work,  age,  or  sex  of  operatives,  or  condi 
tions  of  employment.  Every  mill  was  a  law  unto 
itself.  Hours  were  long,  often  seventy -two  and  in 
a  few  cases  seventy-five  a  week.  Wages  were  often 
paid  in  scrip  good  at  the  company  store  but  re 
deemable  in  cash  only  at  infrequent  intervals,  if 
indeed  any  were  then  presented.  Yet,  if  the  prices 
at  the  store  were  sometimes  exorbitant,  they  were 
likely  to  be  less  than  the  operatives  had  been  ac 
customed  to  pay  when  buying  on  credit  while  liv 
ing  on  the  farms.  The  moral  conditions  at  some  of 
these  mills  were  also  bad,  since  the  least  desirable  ele 
ment  of  the  rural  population  was  the  first  to  go  to 
the  mills.  Such  conditions,  however,  were  not  uni 
versal.  Some  of  the  industrial  communities  were 
clean  and  self-respecting,  but  conditions  depended 
largely  upon  the  individual  in  charge  of  the  mill. 

As  the  years  went  on  and  more  and  more  mills 
were  built,  the  demand  for  operatives  increased. 
To  draw  them  from  the  farms,  it  was  necessary  to 
improve  living  conditions  in  the  mill  villages  and 
to  increase  wages.  Today  the  mill  communities 
are  generally  clean,  and  care  is  taken  to  exclude 
immoral  individuals.  Payment  of  wages  in  cash 


114  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

became  the  rule.  The  company  store  persisted,  but 
chiefly  as  a  matter  of  convenience  to  the  operatives ; 
and  in  prices  it  met  and  often  cut  below  those 
charged  in  other  stores  in  the  vicinity.  The  hours 
of  labor  were  reduced  gradually.  Seventy-two  be 
came  the  maximum,  but  most  mills  voluntarily  ran 
sixty -nine  or  even  sixty-six.  The  employment  of 
children  continued,  though  some  individual  em 
ployers  reduced  it  as  much  as  possible  without  seri 
ously  crippling  their  forces.  This  was  a  real  dan 
ger  so  long  as  there  were  no  legal  restrictions  on 
child  labor.  Children  worked  upon  the  farm  as 
children  have  done  since  farming  began,  and  the 
average  farmer  who  moved  to  the  mill  was  unable 
to  see  the  difference  between  working  on  the  farm 
and  working  in  the  mill.  In  fact,  to  his  mind, 
work  in  the  mill  seemed  easier  than  exposure  on  the 
farm  to  the  summer  sun  and  the  winter  cold. 

Men  who  were  not  conscious  of  deliberately  ex 
ploiting  their  children  urged  the  manager  of  the 
mill  to  employ  a  child  of  twelve  or  even  ten.  If 
the  manager  refused,  he  was  threatened  with  the 
loss  of  the  whole  family.  A  family  containing  good 
operatives  could  always  find  employment  else 
where,  and  perhaps  the  manager  of  another  mill 
would  not  be  so  scrupulous.  So  the  children  went 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  115 

into  the  mill  and  often  stayed  there.  If  illiterate 
when  they  entered,  they  remained  illiterate.  The 
number  of  young  children,  however,  was  always 
exaggerated  by  the  muckrakers,  though  unques 
tionably  several  hundred  children  ten  to  twelve 
years  old,  and  possibly  a  few  younger,  were  em 
ployed  years  ago.  The  nature  of  the  work  permits 
the  employment  of  operatives  under  sixteen  only 
in  the  spinning  room;  the  girls,  many  of  them  older 
than  sixteen,  mend  the  broken  ends  of  the  yarn  at 
the  spinning  frames,  and  the  boys  remove  the  full 
bobbins  and  fix  empty  ones  in  their  stead.  The 
possible  percentage  of  workers  under  sixteen  in  a 
spinning  mill  varies  from  thirty-five  to  forty-five. 
In  a  mill  which  weaves  the  yarn  into  cloth,  the 
percentage  is  greatly  reduced,  as  practically  no 
one  under  sixteen  can  be  profitably  employed  in  a 
weaving  room. 

Public  sentiment  against  the  employment  of 
children  became  aroused  only  slowly.  Crusades 
against  such  industrial  customs  are  usually  led  by 
organized  labor,  by  professional  philanthropists, 
by  sentimentalists,  and  by  socialistic  agitators. 
The  mill  operatives  of  the  South  have  shown  little 
disposition  to  organize  themselves  and,  in  fact,  have 
protested  against  interference  with  their  right  of 


116  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

contract.  The  South  is  only  just  becoming  rich 
enough  to  support  professional  philanthropists, 
and  an  outlet  for  sentimentality  has  been  found  in 
other  directions.  /There  has  been  as  yet  too  little 
disproportion  of  wealth  among  the  Southern  whites 
to  excite  acute  jealousy  on  this  ground  alone,  and 
the  operatives  have  earned  much  more  money  in 
the  mills  than  was  possible  on  the  farms.  In  com 
paratively  few  cases  does  one  man,  or  one  family, 
own  a  controlling  interest  in  a  mill.  The  owner 
ship  is  usually  scattered  in  small  holdings,  and  there 
is  seldom  a  Croesus  to  excite  envy.  This  wide 
ownership  has  had  its  effect  upon  the  general  atti 
tude  of  the  more  influential  citizens  and  hindered 
the  development  of  active  disapproval. ; 

The  chief  reason  for  the  inertia  in  labor  matters, 
however,  has  been  the  fact  that  the  South  has 
thought,  and  to  a  large  extent  still  thinks,  in  terms 
of  agriculture.  It  has  not  yet  developed  an  in 
dustrial  philosophy.  Agriculture  is  individualistic, 
and  Thomas  Jefferson's  ideas  upon  the  functions 
and  limitations  of  government  still  have  influence. 
Regulation  of  agricultural  labor  would  seem  ab 
surd,  and  the  difference  between  a  family,  with  or 
without  hired  help,  working  in  comparative  freedom 
on  a  farm,  and  scores  of  individuals  working  at  the 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  117 

same  tasks,  day  after  day,  under  more  or  less  ten 
sion  was  slow  to  take  shape  in  the  popular  conscious 
ness.  It  was  obvious  that  the  children  were  not 
actually  physically  abused;  almost  unanimously 
they  preferred  work  to  school,  just  as  the  city  boy 
does  today;  and  the  children  themselves  opposed 
most  strongly  any  proposed  return  to  the  farm. 
The  task  of  the  reformers  —  for  in  every  State 
there  were  earnest  men  and  women  who  saw  the 
evils  of  unrestricted  child  labor  —  was  difficult. 
It  was  the  same  battle  which  had  been  fought  in 
England  and  later  in  New  England,  when  their 
textile  industries  were  passing  through  the  same 
stage  of  development.  Every  student  of  indus 
trial  history  realizes  that  conditions  in  the  South 
were  neither  so  hard  nor  were  the  hours  so  long  as 
they  had  been  in  England  and  New  England. 

The  attempt  to  apply  pressure  from  without  had 
little  influence.  Indeed  it  is  possible  that  the  re 
sentment  occasioned  by  the  exaggerated  stories  of 
conditions  really  hindered  the  progress  of  restric 
tive  legislation,  just  as  the  bitter  denunciation  of 
the  Southern  attitude  toward  the  negro  has  in 
creased  conservatism.  Every  one  knew  that  the 
pitiful  stories  of  abuse  or  oppression  were  untrue. 
No  class  of  laborers  anywhere  is  more  independent 


118  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

than  Southern  mill  operatives.  It  has  been  a  long 
while  since  a  family  of  even  semi-efficient  operatives 
has  been  compelled  to  ask  for  employment.  Run 
ners  for  other  mills,  upon  the  slightest  hint  of  dis 
affection,  are  quick  to  seek  them  out  and  even  to 
advance  the  expense  of  moving  and  money  to  pay 
any  debts.  It  is  well  known  that  families  move 
for  the  slightest  reason  or  for  no  reason  at  all  ex 
cept  a  vague  unrest.  Self-interest,  if  nothing  else, 
would  restrain  an  overseer  from  an  act  which 
might  send  a  whole  family  or  perhaps  half  a  dozen 
families  from  his  mill. 

Gradually  the  States  imposed  limitations  upon 
age  of  employment,  hours  of  labor,  and  night  work 
for  women  and  children,  which  practically  meant 
limiting  or  abolishing  night  work  altogether.  These 
restrictions  were  slight  at  first,  and  the  provisions 
for  their  enforcement  were  inadequate,  but  suc 
ceeding  legislatures  increased  them.  Mild  com 
pulsory  attendance  laws  kept  some  of  the  children 
in  school  and  out  of  the  mill.  A  more  or  less  sub 
stantial  body  of  labor  legislation  was  gradually 
growing  up,  when  state  regulation  was  stopped  by 
the  action  of  the  Federal  Government.  Since  the 
first  Federal  Child  Labor  Act  was  declared  uncon 
stitutional,  several  States  have  strengthened  laws 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  119 

previously  existing,  and  have  further  reduced  the 
hours  of  labor. 

Until  comparatively  recently  whatever  provision 
was  made  for  the  social  betterment  of  the  opera 
tives  depended  upon  the  active  manager  of  the 
particular  mill.  Some  assumed  a  patriarchal  atti 
tude  and  attempted  to  provide  those  things  which 
they  thought  the  operatives  should  have.  Others 
took  little  or  no  responsibility,  except  perhaps  to 
make  a  contribution  to  all  the  churches  represented 
in  the  community.  This  practice  is  almost  uni 
versal,  and  if  the  term  of  the  public  school  is  short, 
it  is  usually  extended  by  a  contribution  from  the 
mill  treasury.  During  recent  years  much  more 
has  been  done.  Partly  from  an  awakening  sense 
of  social  responsibility  and  partly  from  a  realiza 
tion  that  it  is  good  business  to  do  so,  the  bigger 
mills  have  made  large  expenditures  to  improve  the 
condition  of  their  operatives.  They  have  pro 
vided  reading  rooms  and  libraries,  have  opened 
many  recreation  rooms  and  playgrounds,  and  have 
furnished  other  facilities  for  entertainment.  Some 
of  the  mills  have  athletic  fields,  and  a  few  support 
semi-professional  baseball  teams.  At  some  mills 
community  buildings  have  been  erected,  which 
sometimes  contain,  in  addition  to  public  rooms, 


120  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

baths,  and  a  swimming  pool,  an  office  for  a  visit 
ing  nurse  and  rooms  which  an  adviser  in  domestic 
science  may  use  for  demonstration.  The  older 
women  are  hard  to  teach,  but  not  a  few  of  the 
girls  take  an  interest  in  the  work.  Nothing  is 
more  needed  than  instruction  in  domestic  science. 
The  operatives  spend  a  large  proportion  of  their 
income  upon  food  —  for  the  rent  they  pay  is  tri 
fling  —  but  the  items  are  not  always  well  chosen, 
and  the  cooking  is  often  bad.  To  the  monoto 
nous  dietary  to  which  they  were  accustomed  on 
the  farms  they  add  many  luxuries  to  be  had  in 
the  mill  town,  but  these  are  often  ruined  by  im 
proper  preparation.  Owing  to  this  lack  of  domes 
tic  skill  many  operatives  apparently  suffer  from 
malnutrition,  though  they  spend  more  than  enough 
money  to  supply  an  abundance  of  nourishing  food. 
Not  many  years  ago  the  improvidence  of  the 
mill  operatives  was  proverbial.  Wages  were  gener 
ally  spent  as  fast  as  they  were  earned,  and  often 
extravagantly.  Little  attempt  was  made  to  culti 
vate  gardens  or  to  make  yards  attractive,  with  the 
result  that  a  factory  village  with  its  monotonous 
rows  of  unkempt  houses  was  a  depressing  sight. 
The  "factory  people,"  many  of  whom  had  been 
nomad  tenant  farmers  seldom  living  long  in  the 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  121 

same  place,  had  never  thought  of  attempting  to 
beautify  their  surroundings,  and  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  mill  to  which  they  moved 
was  often  bare  and  unlovely  and  afforded  little  en 
couragement  to  beauty. 

The  improvident  family  is  still  common,  and 
many  ugly  mill  villages  yet  exist,  but  one  who  has 
watched  the  development  of  the  cotton  industry 
in  the  South  for  twenty-five  years  has  seen  great 
changes  in  these  respects.  Thousands  of  families 
are  saving  money  today.  Some  buy  homes ;  others 
set  up  one  member  of  the  family  in  a  small  business; 
and  a  few  buy  farms.  More  than  seventy-five 
families  have  left  one  mill  village  during  the  last 
ten  years  to  buy  farms  with  their  savings,  but  this 
instance  is  rather  unusual ;  comparatively  few  fami 
lies  return  to  the  land.  Efforts  have  been  made  to 
develop  a  community  spirit,  and  the  results  are 
perceptible.  Many  mill  villages  are  now  really 
attractive.  Scores  of  mills  have  had  their  grounds 
laid  out  by  a  landscape  architect,  and  a  mill  covered 
with  ivy  and  surrounded  by  well-kept  lawns  and 
flower  beds  is  no  longer  exceptional .  In  scores  of  mill 
communities  annual  prizes  are  offered  for  the  best 
vegetable  garden,  the  most  attractive  premises,  and 
the  best  kept  premises  from  a  sanitary  standpoint. 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

The  Southern  operative  is  too  close  to  the  soil  to 
be  either  socialistic  in  his  views  or  collectivistic  in 
his  attitude.  The  labor  agitator  has  found  sterile 
soil  for  his  propaganda.  Yet  signs  of  a  dawning 
class  consciousness  are  appearing.  As  always,  the 
first  manifestation  is  opposition  to  the  dominant 
political  party  or  faction.  This  has  not  yet,  how 
ever,  been  translated  into  any  considerable  number 
of  Republican  votes,  except  in  North  Carolina.  In 
the  other  States,  the  votes  of  the  factory  operatives 
seem  to  be  cast  in  something  of  a  block,  in  the  pri 
mary  elections.  The  demagogic  Blease  is  said  to 
have  found  much  of  his  support  in  South  Carolina 
in  the  factory  villages. 

Employees  in  other  industries  show  so  much  di 
versity  that  few  general  statements  can  be  made 
concerning  them.  The  workers  in  the  furniture 
factories  —  who  are  chiefly  men,  as  few  women  or 
children  can  be  employed  in  this  industry  —  are 
few  in  number  compared  with  the  male  employees 
in  the  cotton  mills  and,  except  in  the  case  of  a  few 
towns,  can  hardly  be  discussed  as  a  group  at  all. 
Both  whites  and  negroes  are  employed,  but  the 
white  man  is  usually  in  the  responsible  post, 
though  a  few  negroes  tend  important  machines. 
The  general  average  of  education  and  intelligence 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  123 

among  the  whites  is  higher  here  than  in  the  cotton 
mills,  and  wages  are  likewise  higher.  Conditions 
in  other  establishments  making  articles  of  wood 
are  practically  the  same. 

Lumber  mills  range  from  a  small  neighborhood 
sawmill  with  a  handful  of  employees  to  the  great 
organizations  which  push  railroads  into  the  deep 
woods  and  strip  a  mountain  side  or  devastate 
the  lowlands.  Such  organizations  require  a  great 
number  of  laborers,  whom  they  usually  feed  and  to 
whom  they  issue  from  a  "commissary"  various 
necessary  articles  which  are  charged  against  the 
men's  wages.  As  the  work  is  hard,  it  has  not  been 
at  all  uncommon  for  employees  who  had  received 
large  advances  to  decamp.  The  companies,  how 
ever,  took  advantage  of  various  laws  similar  to 
those  mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  agriculture  to 
have  these  deserters  arrested  and  to  have  them, 
when  convicted,  "hired  out"  to  the  very  company 
or  employer  from  whom  they  had  fled.  Conditions 
resulting  from  this  practice  in  some  of  the  States 
of  the  Lower  South  became  so  scandalous  about 
1905  that  numerous  individuals  were  tried  in  the 
courts  and  were  convicted  of  holding  employees  in 
a  state  of  peonage.  In  1911  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  declared  unconstitutional  the 


124  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

law  of  Alabama  regarding  contract  of  service.1 
This  law  regarded  the  nonfulfillment  of  a  contract 
on  which  an  advance  had  been  made  as  prima  facie 
evidence  of  intent  to  defraud  and  thus  gave  em 
ployers  immense  power  over  their  employees.  Con 
ditions  have  therefore  undoubtedly  improved  since 
the  peonage  trials,  but  the  lumber  industry  is  one 
in  which  the  labor  has  apparently  everywhere  been 
casual,  migratory,  and  lawless. 

The  manufacture  of  tobacco  shows  as  much  di 
versity  of  labor  conditions  as  the  lumber  industry. 
There  are  small  establishments  with  little  machin 
ery  which  manufacture  plug  and  smoking  tobacco 
and  are  open  only  a  few  months  in  the  year,  as  well 
as  those  which  cover  half  a  dozen  city  blocks.  In 
the  smaller  factories  the  majority  of  the  laborers 
are  black,  but  in  the  larger  establishments  both  ne 
groes  and  whites  are  employed.  Sometimes  they 
do  the  same  sort  of  work  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
same  room.  In  some  departments  negro  and  white 
men  work  side  by  side,  while  in  others  only  whites 
or  only  negroes  are  found.  The  more  complicated 
machines  are  usually  tended  by  whites,  and  the 
filling  and  inspection  of  containers  is  ordinarily 
done  by  white  girls,  who  are  also  found  in  large 

'  Bailey  vs.  Alabama,  219  U.  S.f  219. 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  125 

numbers  in  the  cigarette  factories.  Not  many 
years  ago  the  tobacco  industry  was  supposed  to 
belong  to  the  negro,  but  with  the  introduction 
of  machinery  he  has  lost  his  monopoly,  though 
on  account  of  the  expansion  of  the  industry  the 
total  number  of  negroes  employed  is  greater  than 
ever  before. 

In  the  smaller  factories  labor  is  usually  paid  by 
the  day,  but  in  the  larger  establishments  every 
operation  possible  is  on  a  piecework  basis.  These 
operations  are  so  related  in  a  series  that  a  slacker 
feels  the  displeasure  of  those  who  follow  him  and 
depend  upon  him  for  a  supply  of  material.  In  the 
smaller  factories  the  work  is  regarded  somewhat  in 
the  light  of  a  summer  holiday,  as  the  tasks  are 
simple  and  the  operatives  talk  and  sing  at  their 
work.  This  social  element  largely  disappears,  how 
ever,  with  the  introduction  of  machinery.  As 
might  be  expected  in  a  labor  force  composed  of 
men,  women,  and  children,  both  white  and  black, 
with  some  engaged  in  manual  labor  and  others  tend 
ing  complicated  machines,  there  is  little  solidarity. 
An  organized  strike  including  any  large  percentage 
of  the  force  in  a  tobacco  factory  is  a  practical  im 
possibility.  Those  engaged  in  a  particular  process 
may  strike  and  in  consequence  tie  up  the  processes 


126  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

depending  upon  them,  but  any  sort  of  industrial 
friction  is  uncommon.  The  general  level  of  wages 
has  been  steadily  rising,  and  among  the  negroes 
the  tobacco  workers  are  the  aristocrats  of  the 
wage  earners  and  are  content  with  their  situation. 
Since  the  larger  factories  are  almost  invariably  in 
the  cities,  the  homes  of  the  workers  are  scattered 
and  not  collected  in  communities  as  around  the 
cotton  mills. 

Experiments  have  been  made  in  employing  ne 
gro  operatives  in  the  textile  industry,  so  far  with 
little  success,  though  the  capacity  of  the  negro 
for  such  employment  has  not  yet  been  disproved. 
Though  several  cotton  mills  which  made  the  experi 
ment  failed,  in  every  case  there  were  difficulties 
which  might  have  caused  a  similar  failure  even 
with  white  operatives.  Negroes  have  been  em 
ployed  successfully  in  some  hosiery  mills  and  in  a 
few  small  silk  mills.  The  increasing  scarcity  of 
labor,  especially  during  the  Great  War,  has  led  to 
the  substitution  of  negroes  for  whites  in  a  number 
of  knitting  mills.  Some  successful  establishments 
are  conducted  with  negro  labor  but  the  labor  force 
is  either  all  white  or  all  black  except  that  white 
overseers  are  always,  or  nearly  always  employed. 

An  important  hindrance  in  the  way  of  the  success 


LABOR  CONDITIONS  127 

of  negroes  in  these  occupations  is  their  charac 
teristic  dislike  of  regularity  and  punctuality.  As 
the  negro  has  acquired  these  virtues  to  some  extent 
at  least  in  the  tobacco  industry,  there  seems  to  be 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  in  time  he  may  not  suc 
ceed  also  in  textiles,  in  which  the  work  is  not  more 
difficult  than  in  other  tasks  of  which  negroes  have 
proved  themselves  capable.  So  far  the  whites 
have  not  resented  the  occasional  introduction  of 
black  operatives  into  the  textile  industry.  If  the 
negroes  become  firmly  established  while  the  de 
mand  for  operatives  continues  to  be  greater  than 
the  supply,  race  friction  on  this  account  is  unlikely, 
but  if  they  are  introduced  in  the  future  as  strike 
breakers,  trouble  is  sure  to  arise.  In  the  mines, 
blast  furnaces,  oil  mills,  and  fertilizer  factories 
the  negroes  do  the  hardest  and  most  unpleasant 
tasks,  work  which  in  the  North  is  done  by  recent 
immigrants. 

The  negroes  are  almost  entirely  unorganized  and 
are  likely  to  remain  so  for  a  long  time.  Few  negroes 
accumulate  funds  enough  to  indulge  in  the  luxury 
of  a  strike,  and  they  have  shown  little  tendency  to 
organize  or  support  unions.  However,  their  de 
votion  to  their  lodges  shows  the  loyalty  of  which 
they  are  capable,  and  their  future  organization's 


128  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

not  beyond  the  range  of  possibility.  Generally 
the  South  has  afforded  little  encouragement  to  or 
ganized  labor.  Even  the  white  workers,  except  in 
the  cities  and  in  a  few  skilled  trades,  have  shown 
until  recently  little  tendency  to  organize.  In  the 
towns  and  villages  they  are  not  sharply  differenti 
ated  from  the  other  elements  of  the  population. 
They  look  upon  themselves  as  citizens  rather  than 
as  members  of  the  laboring  class.  Except  in  a  few  of 
the  larger  towns  one  does  not  hear  of  "class  con 
flict";  and  the  "labor  vote,"  when  by  any  chance 
a  Socialist  or  a  labor  candidate  is  nominated,  is 
not  large  enough  to  be  a  factor  in  the  result. 

During  1918  and  1919,  however,  renewed  efforts 
to  organize  Southern  labor  met  with  some  success 
particularly  in  textile  and  woodworking  establish 
ments,  though  the  tobacco  industry  and  public 
utilities  were  likewise  affected.  The  efforts  of 
employers  to  prevent  the  formation  of  unions  led 
to  lockouts  and  strikes  during  which  there  was 
considerable  disorder  and  some  bloodshed.  Com 
munities  which  had  known  of  such  disputes  only 
from  hearsay  stood  amazed.  The  workers  gener 
ally  gained  recognition  of  their  right  to  organize, 
and  their  success  may  mean  greater  industrial 
friction  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   PROBLEM    OF    BLACK   AND    WHITE 

'   •    X 

FOR  a  century,  the  presence  of  the  negro  in  the 
United  States  has  divided  the  nation.  Though  the 
Civil  War  finally  decided  some  questions  about  his 
status,  others  affecting  his  place  in  the  social  order 
remained  unsettled;  new  controversies  have  arisen; 
and  no  immediate  agreement  is  in  sight.  Interest 
in  the  later  phases  of  the  race  question  has  found 
expression  in  scores  of  books,  hundreds  of  articles, 
thousands  of  orations  and  addresses,  and  un 
limited  private  discussions  which  have  generally 
produced  more  heat  than  light.  The  question  has 
kept  different  sections  of  the  country  apart  and  has 
created  bitterness  which  will  long  endure.  More 
over,  this  discussion  about  ten  million  people  has 
produced  an  effect  upon  them,  and  the  negroes  are 
beginning  to  feel  that  they  constitute  a  problem. 

Differing  attitudes  toward  the  negro  general 
ly  arise  from  fundamentally  different  postulates. 

129 


130  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Many  Northerners  start  with  the  assumption  that 
the  negro  is  a  black  Saxon  and  argue  that  his  faults 
and  deficiencies  arise  from  the  oppression  he  has  en 
dured.  At  the  other  extreme  are  those  who  hold 
that  the  negro  is  fundamentally  different  from  the 
white  man  and  inferior  to  him :  and  some  go  so  far 
as  to  say  that  he  is  incapable  of  development. 
Fifty  years  ago  General  John  Pope  predicted,  with 
a  saving  reservation,  that  the  negroes  of  Georgia 
would  soon  surpass  the  whites  in  education,  cul 
ture,  and  wealth.  Other  predictions,  similar  in 
tone,  were  common  in  the  reports  of  various  phil 
anthropic  associations.  Obviously  these  prophe 
cies  have  not  been  fulfilled;  but  it  is  just  as  evident 
that  the  predictions  that  the  former  slaves  would 
relapse  into  barbarism  and  starve  have  also  not 
been  realized.  Practically  every  prophecy  or  gen 
eralization  made  before  1890  with  regard  to  the 
future  of  the  negro  has  been  discredited  by  the 
events  of  the  passing  years. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  take  stock  of  what 
this  race  has  accomplished  in  America  during  some 
thing  more  than  fifty  years  of  freedom.  The  negro 
has  lived  beside  the  white  man  and  has  increased 
in  numbers,  though  at  a  somewhat  slower  rate  than 
the  white.  The  census  of  1870  was  inaccurate  and 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  131 

incomplete  in  the  South,  and  in  consequence  the 
census  of  1880  seemed  to  show  a  phenomenal  in 
crease  in  the  negro  population.  Upon  this  sup 
posed  increase  was  based  the  theory  that  the  South 
would  soon  be  overwhelmingly  black.  From  the 
historical  standpoint,  Albion  W.  Tourgee's  Appeal 
to  Caesar  is  interesting  as  a  perfect  example  of  this 
type  of  deduction,  for  he  could  see  only  a  black 
South.  The  three  censuses  taken  since  1880  de 
finitely  establish  the  fact  that  the  net  increase  of 
negro  population  is  smaller  than  that  of  the  white. 
This  seems  to  have  been  true  at  every  census  since 
1810,  and  the  proportion  of  negroes  to  the  total 
population  of  the  nation  grows  steadily,  though 
slowly,  smaller. r 

1  Though  the  negro  increase  is  smaller  than  the  white,  nevertheless 
the  4,441,930  negroes  in  1860  had  increased  to  9,827,763  in  1910.  Of 
this  number  8,749,427  lived  in  the  Southern  States,  and  1,078,336  in 
the  Northern.  That  is  to  say,  89  per  cent  of  the  negroes  lived  in  the 
three  divisions  classed  as  Southern,  10.5  per  cent  in  the  four  divisions 
classed  as  Northern  and  0.5  per  cent  in  the  two  Western  divisions. 
Since  1790  the  center  of  negro  population  has  been  moving  toward  the 
Southwest  and  has  now  reached  northeast  Alabama.  Migration  to 
the  North  and  West  has  been  considerable  since  emancipation.  In 
1910  there  were  415,533  negroes  born  in  the  South  but  living  in  the 
North,  and,  owing  to  this  migration,  the  percentage  of  increase  of 
negro  population  outside  the  South  has  been  larger  than  the  average. 
Between  1900  and  1910  the  increase  in  the  New  England  States  was 
12.2  per  cent  and  in  the  East  North  Central  16.7  per  cent.  The 
mountain  divisions  show  a  large  percentage  of  increase,  but  as  there 
were  in  both  of  them  together  less  than  51,000  negroes,  comprising  less 


132  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

Between  1900  and  1910,  the  native  white  popu 
lation  increased  20.9  per  cent  while  the  negro  pop 
ulation  increased  only  11.2  per  cent.  This  smaller 
increase  in  the  later  decade  is  due  partly  to  negro 
migration  to  the  cities.  It  is  believed  that  among 
the  city  negroes,  particularly  in  the  North,  the 
death  rate  is  higher  than  the  birth  rate.  The  ex 
cessive  death  rate  results  largely  from  crowded  and 
unsanitary  quarters. 

Since  1910,  the  migration  of  negroes  to  the  North 
has  been  larger  than  before.  The  increase  was  not 
unusual,  however,  until  the  beginning  of  the  Great 
War.  Up  to  that  time  the  majority  had  been  en 
gaged  in  domestic  and  personal  service,  but  with 
the  practical  cessation  of  immigration  from  Europe, 
a  considerable  number  of  negro  laborers  moved  to 
the  Northern  States.  Indeed,  in  some  Southern 
communities  the  movement  almost  reached  the  pro 
portions  of  an  exodus.  Until  the  next  census  there 
is  no  means  of  estimating  with  any  approach  to 
accuracy  the  extent  of  this  migration.  The  truth 
is  probably  somewhere  in  between  the  published 

than  1  per  cent  of  the  population,  it  is  evident  that  the  negro  is  not  a 
serious  factor  in  the  West.  The  negroes  form  an  insignificant  com 
ponent  (less  than  5  per  cent)  of  the  population  of  any  Northern  State.- 
though  in  some  Northern  cities  the  number  of  negroes  is  considerable. 
See  Abstract  of  the  Thirteenth  Census  of  the  United  States,  p.  78. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  133 

estimates  which  range  from  300,000  to  1,000,000. 
The  investigations  of  the  United  States  Department 
of  Labor  indicate  the  smaller  number. 

The  motives  for  this  northward  migration  are  va 
rious.  The  offer  of  higher  wages  is  the  most  impor 
tant.  The  desire  to  get  for  their  children  great 
er  educational  advantages  than  are  offered  in  the 
South  is  also  impelling.  The  belief  that  race  prej 
udice  is  less  strong  in  the  North  is  another  in 
ducement  to  leave  the  South,  for  "Jim  Crow"  cars 
and  political  disfranchisement  have  irritated  many. 
Finally  the  dread  of  lynch  law  may  be  mentioned 
as  a  motive  for  migration,  though  its  actual  impor 
tance  may  be  doubted.  Not  all  the  negroes  who 
have  moved  to  the  North  have  remained  there. 
Many  do  not  allow  for  the  higher  cost  of  food  and 
shelter  in  their  new  home,  and  these  demands  upon 
the  higher  wages  leave  a  smaller  margin  than  was 
expected.  Others  find  the  climate  too  severe, 
while  still  others  are  unable  or  unwilling  to  work 
regularly  at  the  speed  demanded. 

The  overwhelming  mass  of  the  negro  population 
in  the  South,  and  therefore  in  the  nation,  is  still 
rural,  though  among  them,  as  among  the  whites, 
the  drift  toward  the  cities  is  marked.  The  chief 
occupations  are  agriculture,  general  jobbing  not 


134  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

requiring  skilled  labor,  and  domestic  service,  al 
though  there  is  a  scattered  representation  of  ne 
groes  in  almost  every  trade,  business,  and  profes 
sion.  In  1865  the  amount  of  property  held  by 
negroes  was  small.  A  few  free  negroes  were  upon 
the  tax-books,  and  former  masters  sometimes  made 
gifts  of  property  to  favorites  among  the  liberated 
slaves,  but  the  whole  amount  was  trifling  com 
pared  with  the  total  number  of  negroes.  In  1910, 
in  the  Southern  States,  title  to  15,691,536  acres  of 
land  was  held  by  negroes,  and  the  equity  was  large. 
This  amount  represents  an  increase  of  over  2,330,- 
000  acres  since  1900  but  is  nevertheless  only  4.4  per 
cent  of  the  total  farm  land  in  the  South.  As  ten 
ants  or  managers,  negroes  cultivated  in  addition 
nearly  27,000,000  acres.  In  other  words,  29.8  per 
cent  of  the  population  owned  4.4  per  cent  of  the 
land  and  cultivated  12  per  cent  of  it.  The  to 
tal  value  of  the  land  owned  was  $273,000,000,  an 
average  of  $1250  to  the  farm. x 

1  It  must  be  noted,  however,  that  during  the  decade  ending  in  1910. 
the  percentage  of  increase  in  negro  farm  owners  was  17  as  against  12 
for  the  whites,  and  of  increase  in  the  value  of  their  holdings  was  156 
per  cent  as  against  116  per  cent  for  whites,  while  the  proportion  of 
white  tenants  increased.  The  other  property  of  the  negro  can  only  be 
estimated,  as  most  States  do  not  list  the  races  separately.  The  census 
for  1910  reports  430,449  homes,  rural  and  urban,  owned  by  negroes,  and 
of  these  314,340  were  free  of  encumbrance,  compared  with  a  total  of 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  135 

Speaking  broadly,  the  right  of  the  negro  to  work  I 
at  any  sort  of  manual  or  mechanical  labor  is  not 
questioned  in  the  South.  Negroes  and  whites  work 
together  on  the  farm,  and  a  negro  may  rent  land 
almost  anywhere.  In  thousands  of  villages  and 
towns  one  may  see  negro  plumbers,  carpenters, 
and  masons  working  by  the  side  of  white  men.  A 
negro  shoemaker  or  blacksmith  may  get  the  pat 
ronage  of  whites  at  his  own  shop  or  may  share  a 
shop  with  a  white  man.  White  and  negro  team 
sters  are  employed  indiscriminately.  Hundreds  of 
negroes  serve  as  firemen  or  as  engineers  of  station 
ary  steam  engines.  Thousands  work  in  the  tobac 
co  factories.  Practically  the  only  distinction  made 
is  this :  a  negro  man  may  work  with  white  men  in 
doors  or  out,  but  he  may  not  work  indoors  by  the 
side  of  white  women  except  in  some  subordinate 
capacity,  as  porter  or  waiter.  Occasionally  he 
works  with  white  women  out  of  doors.  Lack  of 
economic  success  therefore  cannot  be  charged  en 
tirely  or  even  primarily  to  racial  discrimination. 
Where  the  negro  often  fails  is  in  lack  of  reliability, 
regularity,  and  faithfulness.  In  some  occupations 


327,537  homes  in  1900,  of  which  229,158  were  free.  Further  dis 
cussion  of  the  part  of  the  negro  in  agriculture  will  be  found  in  another 
chapter. 


136  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

he  is  losing  ground.  Not  many  years  ago  barbers, 
waiters,  and  hotel  employees  in  the  South  usually 
were  negroes,  but  they  have  lost  their  monopoly  in 
all  these  occupations.  White  men  are  taking  their 
place  as  barbers  and  white  girls  now  often  serve 
in  dining-rooms  and  on  elevators.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  number  of  negro  seamstresses  seems  to 
be  increasing.  A  generation  ago,  many  locomo 
tive  firemen  were  negroes,  but  now  the  proportion 
is  decreasing.  There  are  hundreds,  even  thousands, 
of  negro  draymen  who  own  teams,  and  some  of 
them  have  become  prosperous. 

Wliite  patronage  of  negroes  in  business  depends 
partly  upon  custom  and  partly  upon  locality.  Ne 
groes  who  keep  livery  stables  and  occasionally  gar 
ages  receive  white  patronage.  In  nearly  every 
community  there  is  a  negro  woman  who  bakes 
cakes  for  special  occasions.  Many  negroes  act  as 
caterers  or  keep  restaurants,  but  these  must  be  for 
whites  only  or  blacks  only,  but  not  for  both.  A 
negro  market  gardener  suffers  no  discrimination, 
and  a  negro  grocer  may  receive  white  patronage, 
though  he  usually  does  not  attempt  to  attract 
white  customers.  There  are  a  few  negro  dairy 
men,  and  some  get  the  best  prices  for  their  prod 
ucts.  Where  a  negro  manufactures  or  sells  goods 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  137 

in  a  larger  way,  as  in  brickyards,  cement  works, 
lumber  yards  and  the  like,  race  prejudice  does  not 
interfere  with  his  trade. 

Negro  professional  men,  on  the  other  hand,  get 
little  or  no  white  patronage.  No  negro  pastor 
preaches  to  a  white  congregation,  and  no  negro 
teaches  in  ^  school  for  whites.  Negro  lawyers,  den 
tists,  and  doctors  are  practically  never  employed 
by  whites.  In  the  past  the  number  engaged  in 
these  professions  has  been  negligible,  and  that  any 
increase  in  the  total  of  well  trained  negro  profes 
sional  men  will  make  an  immediate  change  in  the 
attitude  of  whites  is  unlikely.  The  relation  of 
lawyer  and  client  or  physician  and  patient  pre 
sumes  a  certain  intimacy  and  subordination  to 
greater  wisdom  which  the  white  man  is  not  willing 
to  acknowledge  where  a  negro  is  involved.  Negro 
women,  trained  or  partially  trained,  are  employed 
as  nurses,  however,  in  increasing  numbers. 

In  1865,  the  great  mass  of  negroes  was  wholly 
illiterate.  Some  of  the  free  negroes  could  read  and 
write,  and  a  few  had  graduated  at  some  Northern 
college.  Though  the  laws  which  forbade  teaching 
slaves  to  read  or  write  were  not  generally  enforced, 
only  favored  house  servants  received  instruction. 
It  is  certain  that  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  was  at 


138  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

least  90,  and  possibly  as  high  as  95.  This  has  been 
progressively  reduced  until  in  1910  the  proportion 
of  the  illiterate  negro  population  ten  years  old  or 
over  was  30.4  per  cent,  and  the  number  of  college 
and  university  graduates  was  considerable  though 
the  proportion  was  small.  Since  the  percentage 
of  native  white  illiteracy  in  the  United  States  is 
but  3,  the  negro  is  evidently  ten  times  as  illiterate 
as  the  native  white.  This  comparison  is  not  fair 
to  the  negro,  however,  for  illiteracy  in  the  urban 
communities  in  the  United  States  is  less  than  in 
the  rural  districts,  owing  largely  to  better  educa 
tional  facilities  in  the  cities;  and  82.3  per  cent  of 
the  negro  population  is  rural. x 

The  negroes  along  with  the  whites  have  suffered 
and  still  suffer  from  the  inadequate  school  facilities 
of  the  rural  South.  The  percentage  of  illiterate 
negro  children  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  fourteen 

1  In  New  England  negro  illiteracy  is  7.1  per  cent  in  the  cities  and 
16.9  per  cent  in  the  rural  communities.  Then,  too,  the  great  masses 
of  negroes  live  in  States  which  are  predominantly  rural  and  in  which 
the  percentage  of  white  illiteracy  is  also  high.  The  percentage  of 
native  white  illiteracy  in  the  rural  districts  of  the  South  Atlantic 
States  is  9.8  and  in  the  East  South  Central  is  11.1  per  cent.  Negro 
illiteracy  in  the  corresponding  divisions  is  36.1  per  cent  and  37.8  per 
cent.  In  the  urban  communities  of  these  divisions,  illiteracy  on  the 
part  of  both  whites  and  negroes  is  less.  Native  white  illiteracy  is  2.2 
per  cent  and  2.4  per  cent  respectively,  while  negro  illiteracy  in  th« 
towns  was  21.4  and  23.8  per  cent  respectively. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  139 

in  the  country  as  a  whole  was  only  18.9  per  cent 
compared  with  the  general  average  of  30.4  for  the 
negroes  as  a  whole.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  as 
the  negroes  now  fifty  years  old  and  over  die  off,  the 
illiteracy  of  the  whole  mass  will  continue  to  drop, 
for  it  is  in  the  older  group  that  the  percentage  of 
illiterates  is  highest.  It  must  not  be  concluded 
from  these  figures  that  negro  illiteracy  is  not  a 
grave  problem,  nor  that  negro  ability  is  equal  to 
that  of  the  whites,  nor  that  the  negro  has  taken 
full  advantage  of  such  opportunities  as  have  been 
open  to  him.  It  does  appear,  however,  that  the  pro 
portion  of  negro  illiteracy  is  not  entirely  his  fault. 
The  negro  fleeing  from  discrimination  in  the 
South  has  not  always  found  a  fraternal  welcome  in 
the  North,  for  the  negro  mechanic  has  generally 
been  excluded  from  white  unions  and  has  often 
been  denied  the  opportunity  to  work  at  his  trade. r 
He  has  also  found  difficulty  in  obtaining  living 
accommodations  and  there  has  been  much  race 
friction.  It  is  perhaps  a  question  worth  asking 
whether  any  considerable  number  of  white  men  of 
Northern  European  stock  are  without  an  instinc 
tive  dislike  of  those  manifestly  unlike  themselves. 

1  The  American  Federation  of  Labor  in  1919  voted  to  take  steps 
to  recognize  and  admit  negro  unions. 


140  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

The  history  of  the  contact  between  such  stocks  and 
the  colored  races  shows  instance  after  instance  of 
refusal  to  recognize  the  latter  as  social  or  political 
equals.  Indian,  East  Indian,  and  African  have  all 
been  subjected  to  the  domination  of  the  whites. 
There  have  been  many  cases  of  illicit  mating,  of 
course,  but  the  white  man  has  steadily  refused  to 
legitimize  these  unions.  The  South  European,  on 
the  contrary,  has  mingled  freely  with  the  natives 
of  the  countries  he  has  colonized  and  to  some  ex 
tent  has  been  swallowed  up  by  the  darker  mass. 
Mexico,  Brazil,  Cuba,  the  Portuguese  colonies  in 
different  parts  of  the  world,  are  obvious  examples. r 
In  the  Southern  States  the  white  man  has  made 
certain  decisions  regarding  the  relation  of  blacks 
and  whites  and  is  enforcing  them  without  regard  to 
the  negro's  wishes.  The  Southerner  is  convinced 
that  the  negro  is  inferior  and  acts  upon  that  convic 
tion.  There  is  no  suggestion  that  the  laws  forbid 
ding  intermarriage  be  repealed,  or  that  separate 
schools  be  discontinued.  Restaurants  and  hotels 


1  How  much  of  this  difference  in  attitude  is  due  to  lack  of  pride  in 
race  integrity  and  how  much  to  religion  is  a  question.  The  Ro 
man  Catholic  Church,  which  is  dominant  in  Southern  Europe,  does 
not  encourage  such  inter-racial  marriages,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  does  not  forbid  them  or  pronounce  them  unlawful.  Yet  this  can 
not  explain  the  whole  difference.  There  seems  to  be  another  factor. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  141 

must  cater  to  one  race  only.  Most  of  the  States 
require  separation  of  the  races  in  common  carriers 
and  even  in  railway  stations.  The  laws  require 
that  "equal  accommodations"  shall  be  furnished 
on  railroads,  but  violations  are  frequently  evident, 
as  the  railways  often  assign  old  or  inferior  equip 
ment  to  the  negroes.  In  street  cars  one  end  is 
often  assigned  to  negroes  and  the  other  to  whites, 
and  therefore  the  races  alternate  in  the  use  of  the 
same  seats  when  the  car  turns  back  at  the  end  of 
the  line.  The  division  in  a  railway  station  may  be 
nothing  more  than  a  bar  or  a  low  fence  across  the 
room,  and  one  ticket  office  with  different  windows 
may  serve  both  races. 

Some  of  these  regulations  are  defended  on  the 
ground  that  by  reducing  close  contact  they  lessen 
the  chances  of  race  conflict.  That  such  a  result  is 
measurably  attained  is  probable,  and  the  comfort 
of  traveling  is  increased  for  the  whites  at  least. 
William  Archer,  the  English  journalist  and  author, 
in  Through  Afro-America  says,  "  I  hold  the  system  of 
separate  cars  a  legitimate  means  of  defence  against 
constant  discomfort, "  and  most  travelers  will  ap 
prove  his  verdict.  The  chief  reason  for  such  regu 
lations,  however,  is  to  assert  and  emphasize  white 
superiority.  Half  a  dozen  black  nurses  with  their 


142  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

charges  may  sit  in  the  car  reserved  for  whites,  be 
cause  they  are  obviously  dependents  engaged  in 
personal  service.  Without  such  relationship,  how 
ever,  not  one  of  them  would  be  allowed  to  remain. 
It  is  not  so  much  the  presence  of  the  negro  to  which 
the  whites  object  but  to  that  presence  in  other  than 
an  inferior  capacity.  This  is  the  explanation  of 
much  of  the  so-called  race  prejudice  in  the  South: 
it  is  not  prejudice  against  the  individual  negro  but 
is  rather  a  determination  to  assert  white  superior 
ity.  So  long  as  the  negro  is  plainly  dependent  ..and 
recognizes  that  dependency,  the  question  of  prej 
udice  does  not  arise,  and  there  is  much  kindly  inti 
macy  between  individuals.  The  Southern  white 
man  or  white  woman  of  the  better  class  is  likely  to 
protect  and  help  many  negroes  at  considerable  cost 
of  time,  labor,  and  money,  but  the  relationship  is 
always  that  of  superior  and  inferior.  If  a  sugges 
tion  of  race  equality  creeps  in,  antagonism  is  at 
once  aroused. 

It  is  the  fashion  to  speak  of  the  "old-time  negro  " 
and  the  "new  negro."  The  types  are  easily  rec 
ognizable.  One  is  quiet,  unobtrusive,  more  or 
less  industrious.  He  "knows  his  place"  -which 
may  mean  anything  from  servility  to  self-respect 
ing  acceptance  of  his  lot  in  life.  The  other  resents 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  143 

more  or  less  openly  the  discrimination  against  his 
race,  and  this  resentment  may  range  from  imperti 
nence  to  sullenness  and  even  to  dreams  of  social 
equality  imposed  by  force.  Some  have  a  smattering 
of  education  while  others,  who  have  been  subject 
ed  to  little  training  or  discipline,  are  indolent  and 
shiftless.  The  thoughtless,  however,  are  likely  to 
include  in  this  classification  the  industrious,  in 
telligent  negro  who  orders  his  conduct  along  the 
same  lines  as  the  white  man. 

This  last  type,  it  is  true,  is  sometimes  regarded 
with  suspicion.  Many  men  and  women  in  the 
South  fear  the  progress  of  the  negro.  They  do  not 
realize  that  the  South  cannot  really  make  satis 
factory  progress  while  any  great  proportion  of  the 
population  is  relatively  inefficient.  Some  fear  the 
negro's  demand  to  be  treated  as  a  man.  On  the 
other  hand,  many  negroes  demand  to  be  treated 
as  men,  while  ignoring  or  perhaps  not  realizing 
the  fact  that,  to  be  treated  as  a  man,  one  must 
play  a  man's  part.  As  Booker  Washington  put 
the  matter,  many  are  more  interested  in  getting  rec 
ognition  than  in  getting  something  to  recognize. 
)Many  are  much  more  interested  in  their  rights 
than  in  their  duties.  To  be  sure  the  negro  is  not 
alone  in  this,  for  the  same  attitude  is  to  be  found  in 


144  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

immigrants  coming  from  the  socially  and  politically 
backward  states  of  Europe.  The  ordinary  negro, 
however,  apparently  does  not  think  much  of  such 
problems  of  the  future,  though  no  white  man  is 
likely  to  know  precisely  what  he  does  think.  He 
goes  about  his  business  or  his  pleasure  seemingly  at 
peace  with  the  world,  though  perhaps  he  sings 
somewhat  less  than  he  once  did.  He  attends  his 
church  and  the  meetings  of  his  lodge  or  lodges,  and 
works  more  or  less  regularly.  Probably  the  great 
majority  of  negroes  more  nearly  realize  their  ambi 
tions  than  do  the  whites.  They  do  not  aspire  to 
high  position,  and  discrimination  does  not  burn 
them  quite  as  deeply  as  the  sometimes  too  sym 
pathetic  white  man  who  tries  to  put  himself  in 
their  place  may  think. 

There  are,  however,  some  individuals  to  whom 
the  ordinary  conditions  of  any  negro's  life  appear 
particularly  bitter.     With  mental  ability,  educa 
tion,  and  aesthetic  appreciation  often  comparable^ 
to  those  of  the  whites,  and  with  more  than  normal x 
sensitiveness,  they  find  the  color  line  an  intolerable 
insult,  since  it  separates  them  from  what  they  value 
most.     They  rage  at  the  barrier  which  shuts  them  '-^ 
out  from  the  society  which  they  feel  themselves   - 
qualified  to  enter,  and  they  are  always  on  the  alert  * 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  145 

to  discern  injuries.  These  injuries  need  not  be 
positive,  for  neglect  is  quite  as  strong  a  grievance. 

These  individuals  all  spell  negro  with  a  capital 
and  declare  that  they  are  proud  of  their  race.  They 
parade  its  achievements  —  and  these  are  not  small 
when  enumerated  all  at  once  —  but  they  avoid  in 
timate  association  with  the  great  mass  of  negroes. 
They  are  not  at  all  democratic,  and  in  a  negro  state 
they  would  assume  the  privileges  of  an  aristocracy 
as  a  matter  of  right.  It  would  seem  that  their  de 
mand  for  full  political  and  social  rights  for  all  ne 
groes  has  for  its  basis  not  so  much  the  welfare  of  the 
race  as  a  whole,  as  the  possibility  of  obtaining  for 
themselves  special  privileges  and  positions  of  leader 
ship.  They  are  not  satisfied  merely  with  full  legal 
rights.  In  those  States  where  there  is  no  legal  dis 
crimination  in  public  places,  their  denunciation  of 
social  prejudice  is  bitter.  They  are  not  content  to 
take  their  chances  with  other  groups  but  sometimes 
are  illogical  enough  to  demand  social  equality  en 
forced  by  law,  though  by  this  phrase  they  mean 
association  with  the  whites  merely  for  themselves; 
they  do  not  wish  other  negroes  less  developed  than 
themselves  to  associate  with  them. 

In  any  city  where  there  is  any  considerable  num 
ber  of  this  class,  there  is  a  section  of  negro  society 


146  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

in  which  social  lines  are  drawn  as  strictly  as  in  the 
most  aristocratic  white  community.  To  prove  that 
the  negroes  are  not  emotional,  these  aristocrats 
among  them  are  likely  to  insist  upon  rigid  formal 
ity  in  their  church  services  and  upon  meticulous 
correctness  in  all  the  details  of  social  gatherings. 
Since  many  of  these  individuals  have  a  very  large 
admixture  of  white  blood,  occasionally  one  crosses 
the  barrier  and  "goes  white."  Removal  to  a  new 
town  or  city  gives  the  opportunity  to  cut  loose  from 
all  previous  associations  and  to  start  a  new  life. 
The  transition  is  extremely  difficult,  of  course,  and 
requires  much  care  and  discretion,  but  it  has  been 
made.  The  greater  part  of  them  nevertheless  re 
main  negroes  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  however  much 
they  strive  to  separate  themselves  in  thought  and 
action  from  the  rest  of  their  kind.  It  is  this  small 
class  of  "intellectuals"  who  were  Booker  T.  Wash 
ington's  bitterest  enemies.  His  theory  that  the 
negro  should  first  devote  himself  to  obtaining  eco 
nomic  independence  and  should  leave  the  adjust 
ment  of  social  relations  to  the  future  was  de 
nounced  as  treason  to  the  race.  Washington's  op 
portunism  was  even  more  obnoxious  to  them  than 
is  the  superior  attitude  of  the  whites.  They  de 
nounced  him  as  a  trimmer,  a  time-server,  and  a 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  147 

traitor,  and  on  occasion  they  hissed  him  from  the 
platform.  From  their  safe  refuges  in  Northern 
cities,  some  negro  orators  and  editors  have  gone  so 
far  as  to  advocate  the  employment  of  the  knife  and 
the  torch  to  avenge  real  or  fancied  wrongs,  but 
these  counsels  have  done  little  harm  for  they  have 
not  been  read  by  those  to  whom  they  were  ad 
dressed.  Perhaps,  indeed,  they  may  not  have  been 
meant  entirely  seriously,  for  the  negro,  like  other 
emotional  peoples,  sometimes  plays  with  words 
without  realizing  their  full  import. 

On  the  whole  there  is  surprisingly  little  friction 
between  the  blacks  and  the  whites.  One  may  live 
a  long  time  in  many  parts  of  the  South  without 
realizing  that  the  most  important  problem  of  the 
United  States  lies  all  about  him.  Then  an  explo 
sion  comes,  and  he  realizes  that  much  of  the  South 
is  on  the  edge  of  a  volcano.  For  a  time  the  white 
South  attempted  to  divest  itself  of  responsibility 
for  the  negro.  He  had  turned  against  those  who 
had  been  his  friends  and  had  followed  after  strange 
gods ;  therefore  let  him  go  his  way  alone.  This  atti 
tude  never  was  universal  nor  was  it  consistently 
maintained,  for  there  is  hardly  one  of  the  older  ne 
groes  who  does  not  have  a  white  man  to  whom  he 
goes  for  advice  or  help  in  time  of  trouble  —  a  sort 


148  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

of  patron,  in  fact.  Many  a  negro  has  been  saved 
from  the  chain  gang  or  the  penitentiary  because  of 
such  friendly  interest,  and  many  have  Jbeen  posi 
tively  helped  thereby  toward  good  citizenship. 
Nevertheless  there  has  been  a  tendency  on  the  part 
of  the  whites  to  remain  passive,  to  wait  until  the 
negro  asked  for  help. 

Undoubtedly  there  is  now  developing  in  the 
South  a  growing  sense  of  responsibility  for  the  wel 
fare  of  the  negro.  The  negro  quarters  of  the 
towns,  so  long  neglected,  are  receiving  more  atten 
tion  from  the  street  cleaners;  better  sidewalks  are 
being  built;  and  the  streets  are  better  lighted. 
The  sanitary  officers  are  more  attentive.  The 
landowner  is  building  better  cabins  for  his  tenants 
and  is  encouraging  them  to  plant  gardens  and  to 
raise  poultry  and  pigs.  The  labor  contractor  is 
providing  better  quarters,  though  conditions  in 
many  lumber  and  construction  camps  are  still  de 
plorable.  Observant  lawyers  and  judges  say  that 
they  see  an  increasing  number  of  cases  in  which 
juries  evidently  decide  points  of  doubt  in  favor  of 
negro  defendants,  even  where  white  men  are  con 
cerned.  Socially  minded  citizens  are  forcing  im 
provement  of  the  disgraceful  conditions  which  have 
often  prevailed  on  chain  gangs  and  in  prisons.  Nor 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  149 

is  this  all.  More  white  men  and  women  are  teach 
ing  negroes  than  ever  before.  The  oldest  univer 
sity  in  the  United  States  points  proudly  to  the 
number  of  Sunday  schools  for  negroes  conducted 
by  its  students,  and  it  is  not  alone  in  this  high 
endeavor.  Many  Southern  colleges  and  universi 
ties  are  studying  the  negro  problem  from  all  sides 
and  are  trying  to  help  in  its  solution.  The  visiting 
nurses  in  the  towns  spend  a  large  proportion  of 
their  time  among  the  negroes,  striving  to  teach 
hygiene  and  sanitation.  White  men  frequently 
lecture  before  negro  schools.  Since  the  beginning 
of  the  Great  War  negro  women  have  been  encour 
aged  to  aid  in  Red  Cross  work.  Negroes  have 
been  appointed  members  of  city  or  county  com 
mittees  of  defense  and  have  worked  with  the  whites 
in  many  branches  of  patriotic  endeavor.  Negroes 
have  subscribed  liberally  in  proportion  to  their 
means  for  Liberty  Bonds  and  War  Savings  Stamps 
and  have  given  liberally  to  war  work. 

The  growth  of  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
welfare  of  the  negro  upon  the  part  of  the  more 
thoughtful  and  more  conscientious  portion  of  the 
white  population  has  reduced  racial  friction  in 
many  communities.  White  women  are  evincing 
more  interest  in  the  morals  of  black  women  than 


150  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

was  usual  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago.  Ostracism 
is  more  likely  to  visit  a  white  man  who  crosses  the 
line.  There  is  no  means  of  knowing  the  actual 
amount  of  illicit  intercourse,  but  the  most  compe 
tent  observers  believe  it  to  be  decreasing.  Though 
the  percentage  of  mulattoes  has  increased  since 
1890,  according  to  the  census,  the  figures  are  con 
fessedly  inaccurate,  and  the  increase  can  be  easily 
accounted  for  by  the  marriage  of  mulattoes  with 
negroes,  and  the  consequent  diffusion  of  white 
blood.  An  aspiring  negro  is  likely  to  seek  a  mu 
latto  wife,  and  their  children  will  be  classed  as 
mulattoes  by  the  enumerators. 

Except  for  the  demagogues,  whose  abuse  of  the 
negro  is  their  stock  in  trade,  the  most  bitter  de 
nunciations  come  from  those  nearest  to  him  in 
economic  status.  The  town  loafers,  the  cotton 
mill  operatives,  the  small  farmers,  particularly  the 
tenant  farmers,  are  those  who  most  frequently 
clash  with  both  the  impertinent  and  the  self-re 
specting  negro.  In  their  eyes  self-respect  may  not 
be  differentiated  from  insolence.  If  a  negro  is  not 
servile,  they  are  likely  to  class  him  as  impertinent 
or  worse.  The  political  success  of  Blease  of  South 
Carolina,  Vardaman  of  Mississippi,  and  the  late 
Jeff.  Davis  of  Arkansas  is  largely  due  to  their 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  151 

appeal  to  these  types  of  whites.  The  negro  on  the 
other  hand  may  resent  the  assumption  of  superior 
ity  on  the  part  of  men  perhaps  less  efficient  than 
himself.  Obviously  friction  may  arise  under  such 
conditions. 

The  mobs  which  have  so  often  stained  the  repu 
tation  of  the  South  by  defiance  of  the  law  and  by 
horrible  cruelty  as  well  do  not  represent  the  best 
elements  of  the  South.  The  statement  so  often 
made  that  the  most  substantial  citizens  of  a  com 
munity  compose  lynching  parties  may  have  been 
partially  true  once,  but  it  is  not  true  today.  These 
mobs  are  chiefly  made  up  from  the  lowest  third  of 
the  white  community  Perhaps  the  persistence  of 
the  belief  has  prevented  the  wiser  part  of  the  popu 
lation  from  stamping  out  such  lawlessness;  perhaps 
some  lingering  feeling  of  mistaken  loyalty  to  the 
white  race  restrains  them  from  strong  action;  per 
haps  the  individualism  of  the  Southerner  has  inter 
fered  with  general  acceptance  of  the  idea  of  the 
inexorable  majesty  of  the  law  which  must  be  vin 
dicated  at  any  cost.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  these 
undercurrents  of  feeling,  sheriffs  and  private  citi 
zens  do  on  occasion  brave  the  fury  of  enraged  mobs 
to  rescue  or  to  protect.  Attempts  to  prosecute 
participants  in  such  mobs  usually  fail  in  the  South 


152  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

as   elsewhere,  but  occasionally  a   jury   convicts. 

The  tradition  that,  years  ago,  lynching  was  only 
invoked  in  punishment  of  the  unspeakable  crime  is 
more  or  less  true.  It  is  not  true  now.  The  statis 
tics  of  lynching  which  are  frequently  presented  are 
obviously  exaggerated,  as  they  include  many  cases 
which  are  simply  the  results  of  the  sort  of  personal 
encounters  which  might  and  do  occur  anywhere. 
There  is  a  tendency  to  class  every  case  of  homicide 
in  which  a  negro  is  the  victim  as  a  lynching,  which 
is  manifestly  unfair;  but  even  though  liberal  allow 
ance  be  made  for  this  error,  in  the  total  of  about 
3000  cases  tabulated  in  the  last  thirty  years,  the 
undisputed  instances  of  mob  violence  are  shame 
fully  numerous.  Rape  is  by  no  means  the  only 
crime  thus  punished;  sometimes  the  charge  is  so 
trivial  that  one  recoils  in  horror  at  the  thought  of 
taking  human  life  as  a  punishment. 

Yet  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  over  certain 
parts  of  the  South  a  nameless  dread  is  always  hover 
ing.  In  some  sections  an  unaccompanied  white 
woman  dislikes  to  walk  through  an  unlighted  vil 
lage  street  at  night;  she  hesitates  to  drive  along  a 
lonely  country  road  in  broad  daylight  without  a 
pistol  near  her  hand;  and  she  does  not  dare  to  walk 
through  the  woods  alone.  The  rural  districts  are 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  153 

poorly  policed  and  the  ears  of  the  farmer  working 
in  the  field  are  always  alert  for  the  sound  of  the  bell 
or  the  horn  calling  for  help,  perhaps  from  his  own 
home.  Occasionally,  in  spite  of  all  precautions 
some  human  animal,  inflamed  by  brooding  upon 
the  unattainable,  leaves  a  victim  outraged  and 
dead,  or  worse  than  dead.  Granted  that  such  a 
crime  occurs  in  a  district  only  once  in  ten,  or  even 
in  twenty  years;  that  is  enough.  Rural  folks  have 
long  memories,  and  in  the  back  of  their  minds  per 
sists  an  uncontrollable  morbid  dread.  The  news 
of  another  victim  sometimes  turns  men  into  fiends 
who  not  only  take  life  but  even  inflict  torture  be 
forehand.  The  mere  suspicion  of  intent  is  some 
times  enough  to  deprive  such  a  community  of  its 
reason,  for  there  are  communities  which  have 
brooded  over  the  possibility  of  the  commission  of 
the  inexpiable  crime  until  the  residents  are  not 
quite  sane  upon  this  matter.  Naturally  calmness 
and  forbearance  in  dealing  with  other  and  less 
heinous  forms  of  negro  crime  are  not  always  found 
in  such  a  neighborhood.  This  fact  helps  to  explain, 
though  not  to  excuse,  some  of  the  riots  that  occur. 

The  better  element  in  the  South,  however,  op 
poses  mob  violence,  and  this  opposition  is  growing 
stronger  and  more  purposeful.  Associations  have 


154  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

been  formed  to  oppose  mob  rule  and  to  punish  par 
ticipants.  Where  reputable  citizens  are  lukewarm 
it  is  largely  because  they  have  not  realized  that  the 
old  tradition  that  lynching  is  the  proper  remedy  for 
rape  cannot  stand.  If  sudden,  sharp  retribution 
were  inflicted  upon  absolute  proof,  only  for  this  one 
cause,  it  is  doubtful  whether  much  effective  opposi 
tion  could  be  enlisted.  Yet  wiser  men  have  seen 
defiance  of  law  fail  to  stop  crime,  have  seen  mobs 
act  upon  suspicions  afterward  proved  groundless, 
have  seen  mob  action  widely  extended,  and  have 
seen  the  growth  of  a  spirit  of  lawlessness.  Where 
one  mob  has  had  its  way,  another  is  always  more 
easily  aroused,  and  soon  the  administration  of  the 
law  becomes  a  farce.  In  some  years  hardly  a 
third  of  the  victims  of  this  summary  process  have 
been  charged  with  rape  or  intent  to  commit  rape. 
As  a  consequence  the  sentiment  that  the  law  should 
take  its  course  in  every  case  is  steadily  growing. ' 

Though  mob  fury  has  broken  out  on  occasion  in 
every  Southern  State,  Maryland,  West  Virginia, 

1  The  statistics  oil  lynching  do  not  always  agree.  Those  compiled 
at  Tuskegee  Institute  list  38  cases  for  1917  and  62  for  1918.  The 
National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People  in  its 
report  Thirty  Years  of  Lynching  (1919)  reports  07  cases  for  1918,  and 
325  cases  for  the  five-year  period  ending  with  1918,  of  which  304  are 
said  to  have  occurred  in  the  South. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  BLACK  AND  WHITE  155 

Kentucky,  and  North  Carolina  are  measurably 
free  from  such  visitations.  Over  considerable  per 
iods  of  time,  Georgia  comes  unenviably  first,  fol 
lowed  by  Mississippi,  Texas,  and  Louisiana.  These 
four  States  have  furnished  a  large  majority  of  the 
lynchings.  The  other  States  range  between  the 
two  groups,  though  in  proportion  to  the  negro  ele 
ment  in  its  population  Oklahoma  has  had  a  dispro 
portionate  share.  It  may  be  said  that  the  lynch- ' 
ings  occur  chiefly  in  those  sections  or  counties 
where  the  numbers  of  whites  and  negroes  are  nearly 
equal.  They  are  fewer  in  the  black  belt  and  in 
those  counties  and  States  where  whites  are  in  an 
overwhelming  majority. 

No  man  has  been  wise  enough  to  propose  any 
solution  of  the  negro  question  which  does  not  re 
quire  an  immediate  and  radical  change  in  human 
nature.  As  the  proportion  of  negroes  able  to  read 
and  write  grows  larger,  they  will  certainly  demand 
full  political  rights,  which  the  mass  of  the  whites, 
so  far  as  any  one  can  judge,  will  be  unwilling  to  al 
low.  Deportation  to  Africa  —  proposed  in  all  seri 
ousness  —  is  impossible.  Negro  babies  are  born 
faster  than  they  could  easily  be  carried  away,  even 
if  there  were  no  other  obstacle.  The  suggestion 
that  whites  be  expelled  from  a  State  or  two,  which 


156  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

would  then  be  turned  over  to  negroes,  is  likewise 
impracticable.  Amalgamation  apparently  is  going 
on  more  slowly  now,  and  more  rapid  progress  would 
presuppose  a  state  of  society  and  an  attitude  to 
ward  the  negro  entirely  different  from  that  which 
prevails  anywhere  in  the  United  States.  There  is 
left  then  the  theory  that,  with  increasing  wealth 
and  wider  diffusion  of  education,  or  even  without 
them,  the  negro  must  take  his  place  on  equal  terms 
in  the  American  political  and  social  system.  This 
theory,  of  course,  requires  an  absolute  reversal  of 
attitude  upon  the  part  of  many  millions  of  whites. 

Color  and  race  prejudice  are  stubborn  things,  and 
California  and  South  Africa  are  no  more  free  from 
such  prejudices  than  the  Southern  States.  In 
fact,  South  Africa  is  today  wrestling  with  a  prob 
lem  much  like  that  of  the  United  States  and  is 
succeeding  no  better  in  solving  it.  The  move 
ment  of  negroes  to  the  North  and  West,  if  con 
tinued  on  any  large  scale,  seems  likely  to  mean 
simply  the  diffusion  of  the  problem  and  not  its 
solution. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

EDUCATIONAL   PROGRESS 

APOLOGISTS  for  Reconstruction  have  repeatedly  as 
serted  that  the  Reconstruction  governments  gave  to 
the  South  a  system  of  public  schools  unknown  up 
to  that  time,  with  the  implication  that  this  boon 
more  than  compensated  for  the  errors  of  those 
years.  The  statement  has  been  so  often  made, 
and  by  some  who  should  have  known  better,  that  it 
has  generally  been  accepted  at  its  face  value.  The 
status  of  public  education  in  the  South  in  1860,  it 
is  true,  was  not  satisfactory,  and  the  percentage  of 
illiteracy  was  high.  Any  attempt  to  distract  at 
tention  from  these  facts  by  pointing  out  the  great 
proportion  of  the  Southern  white  population  in 
colleges  and  academies  is  as  much  to  be  depreca 
ted  as  the  denial  of  the  existence  of  public  schools 
at  all.1 

1  Some  States  had  done  little  for  public  schools  before  I860,  but 
others  had  made  more  than  a  respectable  beginning.  Delaware  es 
tablished  a  "literary  fund"  in  1796,  Tennessee  in  1806,  Virginia  ID 

157 


158  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

In  general  the  public  schools  of  the  South  began 
as  charity  schools,  but  this  was  also  the  case  in 
several  of  the  older  States  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.  These  schools  were  generally  poorly 
taught  in  the  early  years,  and  it  has  been  ques 
tioned  whether  the  training  which  the  pupils  re 
ceived  compensated  them  for  the  humiliating  ac 
knowledgment  of  poverty  which  their  attendance 
implied.  The  amount  of  money  available  was 
small,  and  the  teacher  was  generally  inefficient  or 
worse,  but  these  "old  field  schools"  did  help  some 
men  on  their  way.  Several  States  went  beyond 
the  idea  of  charity  in  education,  and  some  of  the 
towns  and  cities  established  excellent  schools  for 
all  the  people. 

The  literary  fund  in  North  Carolina,  for  example, 
amounted  to  nearly  $2,250,000  in  1840.  The  rapid 
increase  of  this  fund  had  led  to  the  establishment 
of  public  schools  in  1839.  To  every  district  which 
raised  $20  by  local  taxation,  twice  that  amount  was 

1810,  Maryland  in  1813,  and  Georgia  in  1817.  Kentucky  and  Mis 
sissippi  soon  followed  their  example;  North  Carolina  began  to  create 
such  a  fund  in  1825;  Alabama,  Delaware,  Georgia,  Kentucky,  Mary 
land,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina  appropriated  a  part  or  the 
whole  of  their  shares  of  the  "surplus  "  distributed  by  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  under  the  Act  of  1836  to  increase  these  funds  or  establish  new 
ones  for  the  support  of  schools;  and  some  States  levied  considerable 
taxes  for  the  support  of  educational  institutions. 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  159 

given  from  the  income  of  the  literary  fund.  With 
the  election  of  Calvin  H.  Wiley  as  state  superinten 
dent  of  education  in  1852,  substantial  progress 
began.  In  1860  there  were  over  3000  schools,  and 
the  total  expenditure  was  $279,000.  The  number 
of  illiterates  had  fallen  proportionately  and  actu 
ally,  and  ten  years  more  of  uninterrupted  work 
would  have  done  much  to  remove  the  stigma  of 
illiteracy.  The  school  fund  was  left  intact  during 
the  Civil  War,  and  most  of  the  counties  continued 
to  levy  school  taxes.  A  part  of  the  fund  was  lost, 
however,  through  the  failure  of  the  banks  in  which 
it  was  invested,  and  the  remainder  was  squandered 
by  the  Reconstruction  government.  In  spite  of  all 
discouragements,  Superintendent  Wiley  held  on 
until  deposed  by  the  provisional  governor  in  1865. 
It  is  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  schools 
of  this  State  were  better  in  1860  than  they  were 
in  1880. 

During  the  Reconstruction  period  a  system  of 
schools  was  established  in  every  one  of  the  seceding 
States.  On  paper  these  schemes  were  often  admir 
able.  Usually  they  were  modeled  after  the  system 
in  the  State  from  which  some  influential  carpet 
bagger  came,  and  under  normal  conditions,  if 
honestly  and  judiciously  administered,  they  would 


160  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

have  answered  their  ostensible  purposes  and  would 
have  done  much  to  raise  the  intellectual  level  of 
the  population.  Conditions,  however,  were  not 
normal.  The  production  of  wealth  was  hindered, 
and  taxes  had  been  increased  to  the  point  of  con 
fiscation.  In  States  which  had  been  ravaged  by 
war,  and  of  which  the  whole  economic  and  social 
systems  had  been  dislocated,  an  undue  proportion 
of  the  total  social  income  was  demanded  for  the 
schools.  Under  existing  conditions  the  communi 
ties  could  not  support  the  schemes  of  education 
which  had  been  projected.  This  fact  is  enough  to 
account  for  their  failure,  for  when  an  individual  or 
a  community  is  unable  to  pay  the  price  demand 
ed,  it  matters  little  how  desirable  or  laudable  the 
object  may  be. 

As  if  to  make  failure  doubly  certain,  the  schools 
were  neither  honestly  nor  judiciously  administered. 
Much  money  was  deliberately  stolen,  and  much 
more  was  wasted.  Extravagant  salaries  were  paid  to 
favorites,  and  unnecessary  equipment  was  bought 
at  exorbitant  prices.  The  authorities  in  several 
States  seemed  more  interested  in  the  idea  of  edu 
cating  negro  children  with  white  children  than  in 
the  real  process  of  education.  Though  in  but  four 
States  —  South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  161 

and  Arkansas  -  -  were  mixed  schools  the  only 
schools,  such  an  arrangement  was  understood  to  be 
the  ultimate  goal  in  several  other  States.  Several  of 
the  state  superintendents  were  negroes,  and  others 
were  carpetbaggers  dependent  upon  negro  votes. 
Before  the  end  of  Reconstruction,  several  of  these 
were  forced  to  flee  to  avoid  arrest  for  malfeasance 
in  office.  In  those  States  where  mixed  schools 
alone  were  provided,  white  children  did  not  attend 
and  were  thus  cut  off  from  educational  opportuni 
ties  at  public  expense.  Where  separate  schools  were 
provided,  the  teachers  were  often  carpetbaggers 
who  strove  "to  make  treason  odious."  It  is 
hardly  surprising  that  some  parents  objected  to 
having  their  children  forced  to  sing  John  Brown  s 
Body  and  to  yield  assent  to  the  proposition  that 
all  Southerners  were  barbarians  and  traitors  who 
deserved  hanging. 

Just  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  thousands 
of  white  women  went  South  to  teach  in  schools 
which  were  established  for  negroes  by  Northern 
churches  or  benevolent  associations.  Every  one 
who  reads  the  reports  of  such  organizations  now, 
fifty  years  after,  must  be  touched  by  the  lofty 
faith  and  the  burning  zeal  which  impelled  many  of 
these  educational  missionaries;  but  he  must  also 


162  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

be  astonished  by  their  ignorance  of  the  negro  and 
their  blindness  to  actual  conditions.  They  went 
with  an  ideal  negro  in  their  minds,  and  at  first,  they 
treated  the  negro  as  though  he  were  their  ideal  of 
what  a  negro  ought  to  be.  The  phases  through 
which  the  majority  of  these  teachers  went  were 
enthusiasm,  doubt,  disillusionment,  and  despair. 
Some  left  the  South  and  their  charges,  holding  that 
conditions  were  to  blame  rather  than  their  methods ; 
but  others  were  clearsighted  enough  to  realize  that 
they  had  set  about  solving  the  problem  in  the 
wrong  way. 

Beginning  with  the  assumption  that  the  negro 
was  equal  or  superior  to  the  white  in  natural  en 
dowment  and  burning  with  resentment  against  his 
"oppressors, "  they  attempted  to  bridge  the  gap  of 
centuries  in  a  generation.  They  were  anxious  to 
bring  the  negro  into  contact  with  the  culture  of  the 
white  race  and  thereby  they  strengthened  the  con 
clusion  to  which  the  negro  had  already  jumped 
that  educational  and  manual  labor  were  an  im 
possible  combination.  Then,  too,  in  order  to 
prove  the  sincerity  of  their  belief  in  the  brother 
hood  of  mankind,  they  entered  into  the  most  inti 
mate  association  with  their  pupils  and  their  fami 
lies.  Some  of  them,  we  know,  were  compelled  to 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  163 

struggle  hard  to  overcome  their  instinctive  repug 
nance  to  such  intimacy.  All  of  them  taught  by 
implication,  and  some  by  precept  as  well,  that  the 
Southern  whites  who  held  themselves  apart  were 
enemies  to  the  blacks.  That  these  teachers  did 
some  good  is  undoubted,  but  whether  in  the  end  a 
true  balance  would  show  more  good  than  harm  is 
not  so  certain. 

When  the  native  whites  resumed  control  after 
the  days  of  Reconstruction,  their  first  thought  was 
to  reduce  the  expenses  of  the  State.  Tax  levies 
were  cut  to  the  bone,  school  taxes  among  them. 
The  school  funds  did  not  always  suffer  proportion 
ately,  however.  In  1870,  when  the  whites  secured 
control  in  North  Carolina,  the  expenditure  for  pub 
lic  schools  in  that  State  was  $152,000.  In  1874r 
the  school  revenue  was  over  $412,000,  and  the 
number  of  white  pupils  was  almost  the  same  as  in 
1860;  in  addition  55,000  negroes  were  receiving  in 
struction,  but  the  school  term  was  only  ten  weeks. 
The  negro  seems  to  have  received  in  the  first  years 
of  the  new  regime  a  fair  share  of  the  school  money, 
but  that  share  was  not  large.  The  reaction  from 
Reconstruction  extravagance  was  long-continued, 
and  perhaps  has  not  disappeared  today. 

Though  the  South  was  unable  properly  to  support 


164  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

one  efficient  system,  it  now  attempted  to  main 
tain  two,  one  for  whites  and  the  other  for  blacks. 
Necessarily  both  systems  were  inadequate.  The 
usual  country  school  was  only  a  rude  frame  or 
log  building,  sometimes  without  glass  windows,  in 
which  one  untrained  teacher,  without  apparatus  or 
the  simplest  conveniences,  attempted  to  give  in 
struction  in  at  least  half  a  dozen  subjects  to  a  group 
of  children  of  all  ages  during  a  period  of  ten  to  fif 
teen  weeks  a  year.  Often  even  this  meager  period 
was  divided  into  a  summer  and  winter  term,  on  the 
plea  that  the  older  children  could  not  be  spared 
from  the  farms  for  the  whole  time  or  that  bad  roads 
and  stormy  weather  prevented  the  youngest  from 
attending  during  the  winter. 

Though  it  seems  almost  incredible  under  such 
conditions,  something  was  nevertheless  accom 
plished.  Many  children,  it  is  true,  learned  little  or 
nothing  and  gave  up  the  pretense  of  attending 
school.  Others,  however,  found  something  to  feed 
their  hungry  minds  and,  when  they  had  exhausted 
what  their  neighborhood  school  had  to  offer,  they 
attended  the  academies  which  had  been  reestab 
lished  or  had  sprung  up  in  the  villages  nearby  or 
at  the  countyseat.  Between  1875  and  1890,  it  was 
not  at  all  uncommon  to  find  in  such  academies 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  165 

grown  men  and  women  studying  the  regular  high 
school  subjects.  Some  had  previously  taught  ru 
ral  schools  and  now  sought  further  instruction;  and 
others  had  worked  on  the  farms  or  had  been  in 
business.  Men  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  sat  in 
classes  with  town  children  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  but 
made  such  a  large  proportion  of  the  total  attend 
ance  that  they  did  not  feel  embarrassed  by  the 
contrast  in  ages. 

In  the  eighties  there  were  scores  of  these  acade 
mies,  institutes,  and  seminaries  in  the  towns  of  the 
South.  They  were  not  well  graded;  the  teachers 
may  never  have  heard  of  pedagogy.  Their  libra 
ries  were  small  or  altogether  lacking,  and  their  appa 
ratus  was  scanty;  but  in  spite  of  these  drawbacks 
an  unusually  large  proportion  of  the  students  were 
desirous  to  learn.  Many  teachers  loved  mathe 
matics  or  Latin,  and  some  of  the  students  gained  a 
thorough  if  narrow  preparation  for  college.  An 
examination  of  college  registers  of  the  period  shows 
a  considerable  proportion  of  students  of  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  years  of  age.  There  is  even  a 
case  where  a  college  student  remained  out  a  term 
in  order  to  attend  a  session  of  the  Legislature  to 
which  he  had  been  elected.  The  college  students 
of  the  late  seventies  and  early  eighties  were  serious 


166  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

minded  and  thought  of  questions  as  men  and  not 
as  boys.  Though  the  clapper  of  the  college  bell 
was  sometimes  thrown  into  the  well  or  the  presi 
dent's  wagon  was  transferred  to  the  chapel  roof, 
these  things  were  often  done  from  a  sort  of  sense 
of  duty :  college  students  were  expected  to  be  mis 
chievous.  Yet  the  whole  tone  of  college  life  was 
serious.  There  were  no  organized  college  athletics, 
no  musical  or  dramatic  clubs,  no  other  outside 
activities  such  as  those  to  which  the  student  of  to 
day  devotes  so  much  of  his  attention,  except,  of 
course,  the  "literary  societies"  for  practice  in 
declamation  and  debating. 

Though  many  towns  established  graded  schools 
before  1890  by  means  of  special  taxes,  the  condi 
tion  of  rural  education  at  this  time  was  disheart 
ening.  The  percentage  of  negro  illiteracy  was  fall 
ing,  because  it  could  not  easily  be  raised,  but  the  re 
duction  of  white  illiteracy  was  slow.  The  school 
terms  were  still  short,  and  many  of  the  school 
buildings  were  unfit  for  human  occupation.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  quality  of  the  teachers  was  im 
proving.  The  short  term  of  the  schools  was  being 
lengthened  by  private  subscription  in  some  dis 
tricts,  and  new  and  adequate  buildings  appeared  in 
others.  Progress  was  evidently  being  made,  even 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  167 

if  it  was  not  obtrusive,  and  in  that  progress  one  of 
the  leading  factors  was  the  Peabody  Fund./ 

In  1867  George  Peabody,  a  native  of  Massachu 
setts  but  then  a  banker  of  London,  who  had  laid 
the  foundation  of  his  fortune  in  Baltimore,  placed 
in  the  hands  of  trustees  $2,100,000  in  securities  to 
be  used  for  the  encouragement  of  education  in  the 
Southern  States.  The  Fund  was  increased  to 
$3,500,000  in  1869,  though  a  considerable  part 
consisted  of  bonds  of  Mississippi  and  Florida 
which  those  States  refused  to  recognize  as  valid 
obligations.  The  chairman  of  the  trustees  for 
many  years  was  Robert  C.  Winthrop  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  the  other  members  of  the  board  were 
distinguished  men,  both  Northern  and  Southern. 
The  first  general  agent,  as  the  active  administrator 
was  called,  was  Barnas  Sears,  who  at  the  time  of  his 
election  was  president  of  Brown  University. 

Dr.  Sears  was  an  unusual  man,  who  compre 
hended  conditions  in  the  South  and  was  disposed 
to  improve  them  in  every  feasible  way  by  using  the 
resources  at  his  command.  He  had  no  inflexible 
program  and  was  willing  to  modify  his  plans  to 
fit  changing  conditions.  The  income  of  the  Fund 
appears  small  in  this  day  of  munificent  founda 
tions,  but  it  seemed  large  then ;  and  its  effects  were 


168  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

far-reaching.  Sears  was  not  an  educational  re 
former  in  the  modern  sense.  He  seems  to  have 
had  no  new  philosophy  of  education  but  took  the 
best  schools  of  the  nation  as  a  standard  and  strove 
to  bring  the  schools  of  the  South  up  to  that  stand 
ard.  Through  the  aid  of  the  Fund  model  schools 
were  established  in  every  State.  The  University 
of  North  Carolina  opened  its  doors  to  the  teachers 
of  the  State  for  professional  training  during  the 
summer  and  was  apparently  the  first  of  the  sum 
mer  schools  now  so  numerous  and  popular.  Direct 
appropriations  in  aid  of  schools  were  made  out  of 
the  Fund,  provided  the  community  by  taxation  or 
subscription  raised  much  larger  sums.  The  Pea- 
body  Normal  College  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  was 
founded,  and  no  effort  was  spared  to  develop  a 
general  interest  in  public  education.  Advice  to 
legislatures,  trustees,  or  communities  was  given 
when  asked  but  so  tactfully  that  neither  resentment 
nor  suspicion  was  aroused. 

Before  his  death,  Dr.  Sears  had  chosen  Dr.  J. 
L.  M.  Curry  as  his  successor,  and  the  choice  was 
promptly  ratified  by  the  trustees.  Dr.  Curry  was 
a  thorough  Southerner,  a  veteran  of  both  the  Mexi 
can  and  the  Civil  War.  He  had  first  practiced  law 
and  had  sat  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  169 

United  States  and  of  the  Confederate  States.  At 
the  time  of  his  election  to  the  management  of  the 
Peabody  Fund  he  was  a  professor  in  Richmond 
College,  Virginia,  and  a  minister  of  the  Baptist 
Church.  He  had  a  magnetic  personality,  an  un 
yielding  belief  in  the  value  of  education  for  both 
white  and  black,  and  the  temperament  and  gifts  of 
the  orator.  As  a  Southerner,  he  could  speak  more 
freely  and  more  effectively  to  the  people  than  his 
predecessor,  who  had  done  the  pioneer  work. 
During  the  years  of  his  service,  Curry  therefore 
gave  himself  chiefly  to  the  development  of  public 
sentiment,  making  speeches  at  every  opportunity 
before  societies,  conventions,  and  other  gatherings. 
As  he  himself  said,  he  addressed  legislatures  "from 
the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande." 

While  the  influence  of  the  Peabody  Fund  and  its 
agents  was  large,  it  was  not  the  only  influence  upon 
the  educational  development  of  the  South.     There 
were  throughout  that  section  men  who  saw  clearly 
that  the  main  hope  centered  in  education  for  black 
and  white.     They  talked  in  season  and  out,  though  V 
sometimes  with  little  apparent  result,  for  the  op 
posing  forces  were  strong.   Among  these  forces  pov 
erty  was  perhaps  the  strongest.     It  is  difficult  to-' 
convince  a  people  who  must  struggle  for  the  bare 


170  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

necessities  of  life  that  taxation  for  any  purpose  is  a 
positive  good;  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  fami 
lies  of  the  rural  South  handled  little  money.  This 
was  true  even  for  years  after  the  towns  began  to 
feel  the  thrill  of  growing  industrialism.  It  has 
sometimes  seemed  that  the  poorer  a  man  and  the 
larger  the  number  of  his  children,  the  greater  his 
dread  of  taxes  for  education. 

Then,  too,  the  Southern  people  had  followed  the 
tradition  of  Jefferson  that  the  best  government  is 
that  which  assumes  the  fewest  functions  and  inter 
feres  least  with  the  individual.  Many  honest  men 
who  meant  to  be  good  citizens  felt  that  education 
belonged  to  the  family  or  the  church  and  could  not 
see  why  the  State  should  pay  for  teaching  any  more 
than  for  preaching,  or  for  food,  or  clothing,  or  shel 
ter.  There  were,  of  course,  those  claiming  to  hold 
this  theory  whose  underlying  motives  were  selfish. 
They  had  property  which  they  had  inherited  or 
accumulated,  and  they  objected  to  paying  taxes 
for  educating  other  people's  children.  It  must 
be  said,  however,  that  as  a  class,  the  larger  taxpay 
ers  have  been  more  ready  to  vote  higher  taxes 
for  schools  than  the  poor  and  illiterate,  whose  mor 
bid  dread  of  taxation  has  been  fostered  by  the 
politician. 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  171 

There  were  others  who  were  cold  to  the  extension 
of  public  education  on  account  of  the  schools  al 
ready  existing.  In  many  towns  and  villages  there 
were  struggling  academies,  often  nominally  under 
church  auspices.  Towns  which  could  have  sup 
ported  one  school  were  trying  to  support  two  or 
three.  In  few  cases  was  any  direct  financial  aid 
given  by  the  religious  organization,  but  the  school 
was  known  as  the  Methodist  or  the  Presbyterian 
school,  because  the  teaching  force  and  the  majority 
of  the  patrons  belonged  to  that  denomination. 
The  denominational  influence  behind  these  schools 
was  often  lukewarm  toward  the  extension  of  public 
education,  and  the  ministers  themselves  had"  been 
known  to  make  slighting  references  to  "godless 
schools."  There  was  still  another  class  of  people 
who  really  opposed  public  schools  because  they  did 
not  believe  that  the  masses  should  be  educated. 
This  class  was,  however,  small  and  is  perhaps  more 
numerous  in  other  sections  of  the  Union  than  in 
the  South. 

Last,  but  by  no  means  the  least,  of  the  obstacles 
to  general  public  education  was  the  question  of  its 
influence  upon  the  negro.  The  apparent  effects  of 
negro  education  were  not  likely  to  make  the  aver 
age  white  man  feel  that  the  experiment  had  been 


172  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

successful.  The  phrase  that  "an  educated  negro 
was  a  good  plough-hand  spoiled"  seemed  to  meet 
with  general  acceptance.  The  smattering  of  an 
education  which  the  negroes  had  received  —  it 
would  be  difficult  to  call  it  more  —  seemed  to  have 
improved  neither  their  efficiency  nor  their  morals. 
As  a  result  there  were  many  white  people  so  short 
sighted  that  they  would  starve  their  own  children 
rather  than  feed  the  negro. 

To  all  of  these  obstacles  in  human  nature  were 
added  the  defects  of  the  tax  system.  Almost  in 
variably  the  tax  was  levied  by  the  Legislature  upon 
the  State  as  a  whole  or  upon  the  county,  and  the 
constitutions  or  the  laws  in  some  cases  forbade  the 
progressive  smaller  division  to  levy  special  taxes 
for  any  purpose.  Graded  schools  began,  however, 
to  appear  in  the  incorporated  towns  which  were  not 
subject  to  the  same  tax  limitations  as  the  rural  dis 
tricts,  and  in  time  it  became  easier  to  levy  sup 
plementary  local  taxes  by  legislative  act,  judicial 
interpretation,  or  constitutional  changes. 

Gradually  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  schools 
grew  stronger.  The  legislatures  raised  the  rate  of 
taxation  for  school  purposes,  normal  schools  were 
established,  log  schoolhouses  began  to  be  replaced 
by  frame  or  brick  structures,  uniform  textbooks 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  173 

became  the  rule  and  not  the  exception,  teachers' 
salaries  were  raised,  and  the  percentage  of  attend 
ance  climbed  upward,  though  there  was  still  a  rem 
nant  of  the  population  which  did  not  attend  at  all. 
The  school  term  was  not  proportionately  extended, 
since  a  positive  mania  for  small  districts  developed 
-  a  school  at  every  man's  door.  In  the  olden  days 
large  districts  were  common,  and  many  of  the  chil 
dren  walked  four  or  five  miles  to  school  in  the 
morning  and  back  home  in  the  afternoon.  No  one 
then  dreamed  of  transporting  the  children  at  pub 
lic  expense.  The  school  authorities  were  often  un 
able  to  resist  the  pressure  to  make  new  districts, 
and  necessarily  a  contracted  term  followed.  In 
1900  the  average  school  term  in  North  Carolina  was 
not  longer  than  in  1860,  though  much  more  money 
was  spent,  and  the  salaries  were  little  higher.  It 
must  be  remembered,  of  course,  that  no  appropria 
tions  were  made  for  negro  education  before  the 
Civil  War. 

Both  during  and  after  the  War  many  schools  were 
opened  for  negroes  by  Freedmen's  Aid  Societies, 
various  philanthropic  associations,  and  denomina 
tional  boards  or  committees.  As  public  schools 
were  established  for  negroes,  some  of  these  organi 
zations  curtailed  their  work  and  others  withdrew 


174  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

altogether.  Others  persisted,  however,  and  new 
schools  have  been  founded  by  these  and  similar 
organizations,  by  private  philanthropy,  and  also  by 
negro  churches.  As  a  result  there  are  independent 
schools,  state  schools,  and  Federal  schools.  The  re 
cent  monumental  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Educa 
tion  reports  653  schools  for  negroes  other  than  regu 
lar  public  schools.1  Of  these  28  are  under  public 
control,  507  are  denominational  schools  (of  which 
354  are  under  white  boards  and  153  under  negro 
boards),  and  118  are  classed  as  independent.  This 
last  group  includes  not  only  the  great  national 
schools,  such  as  Tuskegee  and  Hampton,  but  small 
private  enterprises  supported  chiefly  by  irregular 
donations.  These  private  and  independent  schools 
owned  property  valued  at  $28,496,946  and  had  an 
income  of  over  $3,000,000.  State  and  Federal 
appropriations  at  the  date  of  the  report  reached 
about  $963,000. 

During  the  first  years  after  the  downfall  of  the 
Reconstruction  governments  the  negro  received  a 
fair  proportion  of  the  pittance  devoted  to  public 
schools.  Governor  Vance  of  North  Carolina,  in 
recommending  in  1877  an  appropriation  to  the 

1  Negro  Education,  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletins  38  and  39 
(1916).  This  work  supersedes  all  previous  collections  of  facts  upon 
negro  education. 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  175 

University  for  a  "professorship  for  the  purpose  of 
instructing  in  the  theory  and  art  of  teaching"  went 
on  to  state  that  "a  school  of  similar  character 
should  be  established  for  the  education  of  colored 
teachers,  the  want  of  which  is  more  deeply  felt  by 
the  black  race  even  than  the  white.  .  .  .  Their 
desire  for  education  is  a  very  creditable  one,  and 
should  be  gratified  so  far  as  our  means  will  permit." 
Instead  of  establishing  the  chair  of  pedagogy 
recommended  by  Governor  Vance,  the  Legislature 
appropriated  the  money  to  conduct  the  summer 
school  for  teachers  at  the  University.  An  appro 
priation  of  equal  amount  was  made  for  negroes  and 
similar  allowances  have  been  continued  to  the  pres 
ent.  Proportionately  larger  appropriations  have 
been  made  for  the  whites  in  recent  years.  Other 
States  have  established  normal  schools  for  negroes, 
but  in  none  of  them  is  the  supply  of  trained  negro 
teachers  equal  to  the  demand. 

The  negro  public  schools  were  organized  along 
the  same  lines  as  the  white,  so  far  as  circumstances 
permitted,  but  the  work  was  difficult  and  remains 
so  to  this  day.  The  negro  teachers  were  ignorant, 
and  many  of  them  were  indolent  and  immoral.  In 
only  a  few  places  in  the  South  do  whites  teach 
negroes  in  public  schools.  The  enthusiasm  for 


176  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

education  displayed  just  after  emancipation  gradu 
ally  wore  off,  and  many  parents  showed  little  interest 
in  the  education  of  their  children.  Education  had 
not  proved  the  "open  sesame"  to  affluence,  and 
many  parents  were  unwilling  or  unable  to  compel 
their  children  to  attend  school.  As  a  contributory 
cause  of  this  reluctance  the  poverty  of  the  negro 
must  be  considered.  It  was  difficult  for  the  negro 
to  send  to  school  a  child  who  might  be  of  financial 
aid  to  the  family.  To  many  negro  parents  it 
seemed  a  matter  of  little  moment  to  keep  a  child 
away  from  school  one  or  two  days  a  week  to  assist 
at  home.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  the 
negro  tenant  farmer  is  migratory  in  his  habits  and 
that  he  often  moved  in  the  middle  of  the  short 
term.  Consequently  the  whole  value  of  the  term 
might  easily  be  lost  by  the  transfer.  It  is  not  sur 
prising  that  the  final  product  of  such  unstable 
educational  conditions  was  not  impressive. 

The  idea  of  the  first  educational  missionaries  to 
the  negroes  of  the  South  was  to  turn  them  into 
white  men  as  soon  as  possible  by  bringing  them  into 
contact  with  the  traditional  culture  of  the  whites 
through  the  study  of  Latin,  Greek,  mathematics, 
and  sometimes  Hebrew,  especially  in  the  case  of 
students  for  the  ministry.  The  attempt  was  made 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  177 

to  take  the  negro,  fresh  from  slavery  and  with  no 
cultural  background,  through  the  course  generally 
pursued  by  whites.  Numerous  "  universities  "  and 
"colleges"  were  founded  with  this  end  in  view. 
Hampton  Institute  with  its  insistence  upon  fitting 
education  to  the  needs  of  the  race  was  unique  for  a 
time,  though  later  it  received  the  powerful  support 
of  Tuskegee  Institute  and  its  noted  principal  and 
founder,  Booker  T.  Washington.  The  influence  of 
this  educational  prophet  was  great  in  the  North, 
whence  came  most  of  the  donations  for  private 
schools.  In  imitation  many  mushroom  schools 
have  recently  added  "rural"  or  "industrial"  to 
their  names,  but  few  of  them  are  doing  work  of 
great  value.  Where  the  school  appeals  chiefly  to 
the  negro  for  support,  liberal  use  is  made  of  such 
high-sounding  names  as  "college"  and  "univer 
sity."  The  negro  still  thinks  that  the  purpose  of 
education  is  to  free  him  from  manual  labor,  and  he 
looks  with  little  favor  upon  a  school  which  requires 
actual  industrial  training.  For  the  same  reason  he 
is  quick  to  protest  when  the  attempt  is  made  to 
introduce  manual  training  into  the  public  schools. 
Partly  because  of  this  opposition  on  the  part  of 
the  negroes  themselves,  partly  because  industrial 
training  is  more  expensive  than  purely  academic 


178  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

training,  and  partly  because  such  training  has  only 
recently  been  recognized  as  part  of  education,  the 
South  has  made  little  provision  for  the  industrial 
education  of  the  negro  at  public  expense.  Accord 
ing  to  the  Report  on  Negro  Education,  few  of  the 
agricultural  and  mechanical  schools  maintained 
partly  by  the  Federal  land  grants  and  partly  by 
the  States  are  really  efficient.  A  few  state  or  city 
schools  also  give  manual  training.  About  one- 
third  of  the  private  schools  for  negroes  offer  in 
dustrial  courses,  but  much  of  this  work  is  ineffective 
—  either  so  slight  as  to  be  negligible  or  straight 
labor  done  in  return  for  board  and  tuition  and 
without  regard  to  educational  value.  Hampton  and 
Tuskegee  are  known  to  do  excellent  work,  and  a 
few  of  the  smaller  schools  are  to  be  classed  as  effi 
cient;  but  in  the  great  majority  of  negro  schools  the 
old  curriculum  is  still  followed,  and  the  students 
gladly  submit  to  its  exactness.  Why  study  some 
thing  so  plebeian  as  carpentry  when  one  may  study 
such  scholarly  subjects  as  Latin  or  Greek? 

Most  institutions  for  negroes  desire  to  do  work 
of  college  grade.  Some  with  not  a  single  pupil 
above  the  elementary  grades  nevertheless  proudly 
call  themselves  colleges.  Other  so-called  colleges 
have  secondary  pupils  but  none  in  college  classes. 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  179 

Thirty -three  institutions  do  have  a  total  of  1643 
students  in  college  classes  and  994  students  in  pro 
fessional  courses,  but  these  same  schools  enroll 
more  than  10,000  pupils  in  elementary  and  second 
ary  grades.  Some  of  them  are  attempting  to  main 
tain  college  classes  for  less  than  5  per  cent  of  their 
enrollment,  and  the  teaching  force  gives  a  dispro 
portionate  share  of  time  to  such  students.  Two 
of  these  thirty-three  institutions  have  nearly  all  the 
professional  students,  and  two  have  nearly  half  the 
total  number  of  college  students.  Only  three  can 
properly  be  called  colleges  —  Howard  University 
at  Washington,  Fisk  University,  and  Meharry 
Medical  College  at  Nashville,  Tennessee. 

While  several  of  the  Southern  States  have  greatly 
increased  their  expenditures  for  schools  since  1910, 
in  some  cases  more  than  doubling  them,  the  pro 
portion  devoted  to  negro  schools  has  not  been 
greatly  increased,  if  indeed  it  has  been  increased 
at  all.  For  example,  in  North  Carolina,  which  as 
signs  for  negro  education  much  more  than  the  aver 
age  of  the  States  containing  any  considerable  pro 
portion  of  negroes,  the  total  paid  to  negro  teachers 
in  1910-11  was  $340,856,  as  against  $1,715,994 
paid  to  white  teachers.  Five  years  later,  negro 
teachers  received  $536,272,  but  white  teachers 


180  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

received  $3,258,352.  In  other  words,  in  the  former 
year  all  the  negro  teachers  received  one-fifth  as 
much  as  all  the  whites,  while  five  years  later  they 
received  about  one-sixth;  that  is,  something  less 
than  one-third  the  total  number  of  children  re 
ceived  about  one-seventh  of  the  money  expended 
for  instruction.  A  part  of  this  wide  difference  in 
expenditure  may  be  explained  or  even  defended. 
The  districts  or  townships  which  have  voted  addi 
tional  local  taxes  are  usually  those  in  which  there 
are  comparatively  few  negroes.  The  average  sal 
ary  paid  to  negro  teachers,  although  low,  is  as 
large  as  can  be  earned  in  most  of  the  occupations 
open  to  them,  and  any  sudden  or  large  increase 
would  neither  immediately  raise  the  standard  of 
competency  nor  insure  a  much  larger  proportion 
of  the  ability  of  the  race.  The  percentage  of  school 
attendance  of  negro  children  is  lower  than  in  the 
case  of  white  children.  Very  few  negro  children, 
whether  because  of  economic  pressure,  lack  of  abil 
ity,  or  lack  of  desire  for  knowledge,  complete  even 
the  fifth  grade.  Among  negroes  there  is  little  real 
demand  for  high  school  instruction,  which  is  more 
expensive  than  elementary  instruction.  There 
fore,  the  proportion  of  the  total  funds  spent  for 
negro  education  might  properly  be  less  than  their 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  181 

numbers  would  indicate.  If  the  proportionate 
amount  spent  today  for  the  instruction  of  certain 
racial  groups  of  the  foreign  population  could  be 
separated  from  the  total,  it  would  be  found  that 
less  than  the  average  is  spent  upon  them  for  the 
same  reasons.  However,  when  all  allowances  have 
been  made,  it  is  obvious  that  the  negro  is  receiving 
less  than  a  fair  share  of  the  appropriations  made  by 
the  Southern  States  for  education. 

The  inadequate  public  schools  for  negroes  have 
been  excused  or  justified  upon  the  ground  that 
private  and  church  schools  are  supplying  the  need. 
This  is  true  in  some  localities,  for  the  great  major 
ity  of  negro  private  schools,  no  matter  by  what 
name  they  are  called,  are  really  doing  only  elemen 
tary  or  secondary  work.  These  schools,  however, 
only  touch  the  beginnings  of  the  problem  and  have 
served  in  some  degree  to  lessen  the  sense  of  re 
sponsibility  for  negro  education  on  the  part  of  the 
Southern  whites.  Where  there  is  one  of  these 
schools  supported  by  outside  philanthropy,  the  pub 
lic  school  is  likely  to  be  less  adequately  equipped 
and  supported  than  in  the  towns  where  no  such 
school  exists.  But  at  best,  these  schools  can  reach 
only  a  small  proportion  of  the  children. 

The  difficulty  lies  in  public  sentiment.     As  a  rule 


182  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

the  tax  rate  is  fixed  by  the  State  but  collected  by 
the  county,  and  the  county  board  divides  the 
amount  plus  any  local  taxes  levied,  among  the 
schools.  Districts  of  the  same  number  of  pupils 
may  receive  widely  varying  amounts,  according  to 
the  grade  of  instruction  demanded.  Generally,  a 
part  of  the  fund  is  apportioned  per  capita,  and  the 
remainder  is  divided  according  to  the  supposed 
special  need  of  the  districts.  A  white  district 
which  demands  high  grade  teachers  is  given  the 
necessary  money,  if  possible.  Few  colored  schools 
have  advanced  pupils,  and  only  sufficient  funds 
for  a  cheaper  teacher  or  teachers  may  be  provided. 
Colored  districts  are  often  made  too  large.  The 
white  districts  ask  so  much  that  little  more  than 
the  per  capita  appropriation  is  left  for  the  colored 
schools.  The  negroes  are  politically  powerless  and 
public  sentiment  does  not  demand  that  money  be 
taken  from  white  children  to  be  given  to  negroes. 

Mention  should  be  made  of  several  funds  which 
have  been  established  by  philanthropists  for  the 
education  of  the  negro.  The  John  F.  Slater  Fund, 
founded  by  a  gift  of  $1,000,000  in  1882,  has  now 
reached  $1,750,000.  The  greater  part  of  the  in 
come  is  devoted  to  the  encouragement  of  training 
schools.  No  schools  are  established  by  the  Fund 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  183 

itself,  but  it  cooperates  with  the  local  authorities 
and  the  General  Education  Board.  The  Jeanes 
Fund  of  $1,000,000  established  by  a  Quaker  lady, 
Miss  Anna  T.  Jeanes  of  Philadelphia,  expends  the 
greater  part  of  its  income  in  helping  to  pay  the 
salaries  of  county  supervisors  for  rural  schools. 
These  are  usually  young  colored  women,  who  work 
under  the  direction  of  the  county  superintendents 
and  visit  the  rural  schools.  They  give  simple 
talks  upon  hygiene  and  sanitation,  encourage  bet 
ter  care  of  schoolhouses  and  grounds,  stimulate  in 
terest  in  gardening  and  simple  home  industries,  and 
encourage  self  help.  Their  work  has  been  exceed 
ingly  valuable.  The  Phelps  Stokes  Fund  of  $900,- 
000,  founded  by  Miss  Caroline  Phelps  Stokes,  is 
not  wholly  devoted  to  the  negroes  of  the  South.  It 
has  been  expended  chiefly  in  the  study  of  the  negro 
problem,  in  founding  fellowships,  and  in  making 
possible  the  valuable  report  on  negro  education 
already  mentioned.  In  1914,  Mr.  Julius  Rosen- 
wald  of  Chicago  offered  to  every  negro  rural  com 
munity  wishing  to  erect  a  comfortable  and  ade 
quate  school  building  a  sum  not  to  exceed  $300, 
provided  that  the  community  would  obtain  from 
private  or  public  funds  at  least  as  much  more. 
The  interest  of  the  General  Education  Board  is 


184  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

not  limited  either  to  negro  or  even  to  Southern 
education,  but  it  Jias  done  much  for  both.  This 
great  foundation  has  paid  salaries  of  state  super 
visors  of  negro  schools  in  several  States  and  has 
cooperated  with  the  Jeanes  Fund  in  maintaining 
county  supervisors  of  negro  schools.  It  has  appro 
priated  over  half  a  million  dollars  to  industrial 
schools  and  about  one-fourth  as  much  to  negro  col 
leges.  Farm  demonstration  work,  of  which  more 
is  said  elsewhere,  is  also  of  aid  to  the  negroes.  The 
Board  has  realized,  however,  that  the  development 
of  negro  schools  is  dependent  upon  the  economic 
and  educational  progress  of  the  whites,  and  has 
contributed  most  to  white  schools  or  to  objects  of 
a  nature  intended  to  benefit  the  whole  population. 
t  All  testimony  points  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
'  is  now  real  enthusiasm  for  education  among  the 
t  Southern  whites.  The  school  terms  are  being  ex 
tended,  often  by  means  of  local  taxes  levied  in  addi 
tion  to  the  minimum  fixed  by  the  State ;  the  quality 
of  the  teaching  is  improving;  and  popular  interest 
is  growing.  In  many  sections,  the  school  is  develop 
ing  into  a  real  community  center.  Good  buildings 
are  replacing  the  shacks  formerly  so  common. 
North  Carolina  is  proud  of  the  fact  that  for  more 
than  fourteen  years  an  average  of  more  than  one 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  185 

new  school  a  day  has  been  built  from  plans  ap 
proved  by  the  educational  department.  More 
and  more  attention  is  being  paid  to  the  surround 
ings  of  the  buildings.  School  gardens  are  com 
mon,  and  some  schools  even  cultivate  an  acre  or 
two  of  ground,  the  proceeds  of  which  go  to  furnish 
apparatus  or  supplies.  Many  of  the  Southern 
towns  and  cities  have  schools  which  need  not  fear 
comparison  with  those  in  other  sections. 

The  crying  need  is  more  money  which  can  come 
only  in  two  ways,  by  reforming  the  system  of  taxa 
tion,  and  by  increasing  the  amount  of  taxable  prop 
erty.  All  through  the  South  the  chief  reliance  is 
a  general  property  tax  with  local  assessors  who  are 
either  incompetent  or  else  desirous  of  keeping  down 
assessments.  The  proportion  of  assessment  to  val 
ue  varies  widely,  but  on  the  average  it  can  hard 
ly  be  more  than  fifty  per  cent;  and,  as  invariably 
happens,  the  assessment  of  the  more  valuable  prop 
erties  is  proportionately  less  than  that  of  the  small 
farm  or  the  mechanic's  home.  The  South  is  grow 
ing  richer,  but  the  conflict  with  the  North  set  the/i 
section  back  thirty  or  forty  years,  while  the  re--^ 
mainder  of  the  country  was  increasing  in  wealth. 
Even  today  the  South  must  build  two  school  sys 
tems  without  the  aid  of  government  land  grants, 


186  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

which  have  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  successful 
development  of  the  schools  of  the  Western  States, 
and  without  the  commercial  prosperity  which  has 
come  to  the  East.  The  rate  of  taxation  levied  for 
schools  in  many  Southern  communities  is  now 
among  the  highest  in  the  United  States. 

During  the  past  ten  years,  hundreds  of  public 
high  schools  have  been  established,  more  than  half 
of  which  are  rural.  Some  still  follow  the  old  cur 
riculum,  but  a  new  institution  known  as  the  "farm 
life  school"  is  now  being  developed.  Many  other 
schools  have  such  a  department  attached  and  usu 
ally  give  instruction  in  household  economics  as 
well.  The  General  Education  Board  estimates 
that  $20,000,000  has  been  spent  for  improved 
buildings  since  the  appointment  of  professors  of 
secondary  education  in  Southern  universities. 
This,  by  the  way,  is  one  of  the  most  useful  contri 
butions  of  the  Board.  These  men,  chosen  by  the 
institutions  themselves  as  regular  members  of  the 
faculty  but  with  their  salaries  paid  by  an  appro 
priation  from  the  Board,  may  give  a  course  or  two 
in  the  university,  but  their  chief  duties  are  to  co 
ordinate  the  work  of  the  high  schools  and  to  serve 
as  educational  missionaries.  They  go  up  and  down 
the  States,  exhorting,  advising,  and  stimulating 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  187 

the  people,  and  the  fruits  of  their  work  are  present 
on  every  hand. 

The  South  has  a  superabundance  of  colleges. 
Some  of  them  have  honorable  records;  others 
represent  faith  and  hope  or  denominational  zeal 
rather  than  accomplishment.  Some  of  the  older  in 
stitutions  were  kept  open  during  War  and  Recon 
struction  but  others  were  forced  to  close.  With  the 
return  of  white  supremacy  old  institutions  have 
been  revived  and  new  ones  have  been  founded. 
The  number  of  students  has  increased,  but  the 
financial  difficulties  of  the  institutions  have  hardly 
diminished.  Few  had  any  endowment  worth  con 
sidering,  and  the  so-called  state  institutions  re 
ceived  very  small  appropriations  or  none  at  all. 
Good  preparatory  schools  were  few  and,  since  the 
colleges  were  dependent  upon  tuition  fees,  many 
students  with  inadequate  preparation  were  leni 
ently  admitted.  Preparatory  departments  were  es 
tablished  for  those  students  who  could  not  possi 
bly  be  admitted  to  college  classes.  Necessarily  the 
quality  of  work  was  low,  though  many  institutions 
struggled  for  the  maintenance  of  respectable  stand 
ards.  One  college  president  frankly  said:  "We 
are  liberal  about  letting  young  men  into  the  Fresh 
man  class,  but  particular  about  letting  them  out." 


188  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

It  was  not  uncommon  for  half  of  a  first  year  class 
to  be  found  deficient  and  turned  back  at  the  end  of 
the  year,  or  dismissed  as  hopeless.  Obviously  this 
was  a  wasteful  method  of  determining  competency. 
Vanderbilt  University  at  Nashville,  Tennessee, 
founded  in  1873  by  the  gifts  of  "Commodore" 
Vanderbilt,  was  the  first  Southern  institution  with 
anything  approaching  an  adequate  endowment 
and  was  the  first  to  insist  upon  thorough  prepara 
tion  for  entrance,  though  it  was  compelled  to  or 
ganize  a  sub-freshman  class  in  the  beginning.  Its 
policy  had  considerable  influence  both  upon  college 
standards  and  upon  the  growth  of  private  prepara 
tory  schools.  The  development  of  public  schools, 
for  a  time,  had  made  the  work  of  colleges  in  general 
more  difficult,  because  they  supplanted  scores  of  pri 
vate  academies  which  had  done  passably  well  the 
work  of  college  preparation  and  yet  were  not  them 
selves  able  to  prepare  students  for  college  in  the 
first  years  of  their  existence.  For  years  it  was 
difficult  in  many  localities  for  a  young  man  to 
secure  proper  preparation,  and  the  total  of  poorly 
prepared  students  applying  for  admission  to  the 
colleges  increased.  The  number  of  towns  and 
cities  which  have  established  high  schools  or  high 
school  departments  has  since  increased  rapidly, 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS  189 

and  today  a  larger  and  larger  proportion  of  college 
students  comes  from  public  schools. 

Since  1900,  the  resources  of  the  colleges  have 
greatly  increased.  States  which  appropriated  a 
few  thousand  dollars  for  higher  education  in  the 
early  nineties  now  appropriate  ten  or  even  twenty 
times  as  much  to  their  universities,  agricultural 
colleges,  and  normal  and  technical  schools  for 
women,  and  have  appropriated  millions  for  new 
buildings.  Many  of  the  denominational  colleges 
have  obtained  substantial  endowments.  The  Gen 
eral  Education  Board  up  to  1914  had  subscribed 
over  $3,000,000  to  Southern  colleges  and  universi 
ties  on  condition  that  the  institutions  raise  at  least 
three  times  as  much  more.  Southern  men  who  have 
accumulated  wealth  are  realizing  their  social  respon 
sibility.  Several  recent  gifts  of  a  million  dollars  or 
more  are  not  included  in  the  sum  mentioned  above, 
and  many  smaller  gifts  or  bequests  likewise. 

Standards  of  work  have  been  raised  with  increas 
ing  income.  As  elsewhere  the  effect  of  the  reports 
of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  has  been  patent.  The 
stronger  institutions  have  brought  up  their  require 
ments  to  the  minimum,  on  paper  at  least,  and  to  a 
great  extent  in  fact.  Some  of  the  weaker  institu 
tions  have  dropped  the  pretense  of  doing  college 


190  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

work;  others  have  accepted  the  position  of  junior 
colleges  doing  two  years  of  college  work  and  giving 
no  degrees.  The  States  exercise  little  or  no  super 
vision  over  the  quality  of  work  done  for  college 
degrees,  and  some  institutions  continue  to  grant 
diplomas  for  what  is  really  secondary  work,  but  the 
fact  that  they  are  not  up  to  the  standard  is  known 
and  the  management  is  generally  apologetic. 

No  other  phase  of  Southern  life  is  more  hopeful 
and  more  encouraging  than  the  educational  revival. 
True,  judged  by  the  standards  of  the  richer  States, 
the  terms  of  the  rural  schools  are  short  and  the  pay 
of  the  teachers  is  small;  but  both  are  being  in 
creased,  and  no  schools  are  exercising  more  whole 
some  influence.  The  high  schools  are  neither  so 
numerous  nor  so  well  equipped  as  in  some  other 
States,  but  nowhere  else  is  such  evident  progress 
being  made.  There  are  no  universities  in  the 
South  which  count  their  income  in  millions,  but 
the  number  of  institutions  adequately  equipped  to 
do  efficient  work  is  already  large  and  increasing. 
The  spirit  of  faculty  and  students  is  admirable, 
and  the  contact  of  the  institutions  and  the  people  of 
the  Southern  States  is  increasingly  close  and  full 
of  promise. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    SOUTH    OF    TODAY 

THE  South  of  the  present  is  a  changing  South  with  j 
its  face  toward  the  future  rather  than  the  past,  j 
Nevertheless  the  dead  hand  is  felt  by  all  the  people 
a  part  of  the  time,  and  some  of  the  people  are  never 
free  from  its  paralyzing  touch.     Old  prejudices  j 
the  remembrance  of  past  grievances,  and  antipa 
thies  long  cherished  now  and  then  assert  themselves 
in  the  most  unexpected  fashion.     The  Southerner, 
no  matter  how  much  he  may  pride  himself  upon 
being  liberal  and  broad,  is  likely  to  make  certain 
reservations  and  limitations  in  his  attitude.    There 
are  some  questions  upon  which  he  is  not  open  to    i 
argument,  certain  subjects  which  he  cannot  discuss  ; 
freely    and    dispassionately.     Some    Southerners  f 
have  so  many  of  these  reservations  that  conversa 
tion  with  them  is  difficult  unless  one  instinctively 
understands   their  psychology   and  is   willing   to 
avoid  certain  subjects.     The  past  has  made  so 

191 


192  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

i  powerful  an  impression  upon  them  that  it  has 
I  affected  their  whole  attitude  of  mind. 

Time,  travel,  association,  engrossing  work,  and 
economic  prosperity  have  weakened  many  of  these 
prejudices  and  antipathies,  however,  and  the  South 
erner  is  becoming  free.  There  are  individuals  who 
will  always  be  bound  by  the  past;  there  are  some 
men,  and  more  women,  who  are  yet  "unrecon 
structed";  there  are  neighborhoods  and  villages 
where  men  and  women  yet  live  in  the  past  and 
absolutely  refuse  to  attempt  to  adjust  themselves 
cheerfully  to  changed  and  changing  conditions. 
This  is  not  true  of  the  Southern  people  as  a  whole. 
In  fact  there  is  danger  that  the  younger  generation 
will  think  too  little  of  the  past.  Much  of  the  Old 
South  is  worthy  of  preservation,  and  it  is  never  safe 
for  a  country  or  a  section  to  break  too  abruptly 
with  its  older  life. 

<  Economically  the  South  has  prospered  in  pro 
portion  as  the  new  spirit  has  ruled.  The  question 
of  secession  is  dead,  and  the  man  who  refuses  today 
to  treat  it  as  past  history  but  grows  excited  in  dis 
cussing  it  is  not  likely  to  be  successful  in  his  busi 
ness  or  profession.  The  men  of  the  New  South 
spend  little  time  in  discussing  the  relative  wisdom 
of  Jefferson  Davis  and  Robert  Toombs  or  the 


TH  >:  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  193 

reasons  for  the  failure  of  the  Confederacy.  The 
Southerners  accept  the  results  of  the  War,  and  all 
except  a  negligible  minority  are  convinced  that 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  was  for  the  best. 
To  be  sure  they  believe,  partly  through  knowledge 
but  more  largely  through  absorption,  that  the  Con 
federate  soldier  was  the  best  fighting  man  ever 
known  and  that  the  War  might  have  been  won  if 
the  civil  government  had  been  wiser,  but  on  the 
whole  they  are  not  sorry  that  secession  failed.  They 
thrill  even  today  to  Dixie,  and  The  Bonnie  Blue\ 
Flag,  but  this  feeling  is  now  purely  emotional. 

All  the  Southern  States  have  felt,  though  un-  I 
equally,  the  effects  of  industrialism.     The  South  | 
Atlantic  States  have  been  most  influenced  by  this 
movement,  but  even  Mississippi  and  Arkansas  have 
been  affected.     In  many  sections  the  traveler  is 
seldom  out  of  sight  of  the  factory  chimney.     Some 
towns,  in  appearance  and  spirit,  might  easily  seem 
to  belong  to  a  Middle  Western  environment  but 
for  the  presence  of  the  negro  and  the  absence  of  the 
foreign  born.     The  population  in  these  Southern  I 
towns  is  still  overwhelmingly  American.     In  noj 
States  except  Maryland  and  Texas  did  the  foreign 
born  number  as  many  as  100,000  in  1910,  and  Mis 
sissippi,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina  each 
13 


194  THE  NEW  SOUTE 

had  less  than  10,000  at  that  time.  The  highest 
percentage  of  foreign  born  was  8.6  per  cent  in  Dela 
ware,  the  lowest  0.3  per  cent  in  North  Carolina. 
In  the  South  as  a  whole  the  proportion  of  foreign 
born  whites  was  only  2.5  per  cent. 

The  laborers  in  the  Southern  shops  and  mills  to 
day  are  not  only  native  born  but  almost  altogether 
Southern  born.  The  South  has  been  a  great  loser 
through  interstate  migration.  Other  sections  also 
have  lost  but  the  excess  of  those  departing  has  been 
replaced  by  the  immigration  of  foreign  born.  Com 
paratively  few  have  come  to  the  South  from  other 
sections  except  in  Florida,  Arkansas,  Oklahoma, 
and  Texas,  and  fewer  foreign  born  have  settled 
in  the  South.  As  a  result,  the  percentage  of  in 
crease  of  population  is  less  for  the  South,  if  Okla 
homa  be  omitted,  than  for  the  United  States  as  a 
whole.  Many  of  the  laborers  are  of  rural  origin  or 
are  only  a  generation  removed  from  the  farm. 
They  preserve  the  individualistic  attitude  of  the 
rural  mind  and  have  learned  little  of  collective  ac- 
f  tion.  Labor  unions  have  made  small  progress  ex- 
!  cept  in  a  few  skilled  trades  and  class  consciousness 
I  has  not  developed  in  the  South. 

The  important  industries  have  thus  far  been  few 
and  they  have  kept  rather  close  to  the  original  raw 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  195 

material.  The  South  does  not  spin  all  the  cotton 
it  produces,  does  not  weave  all  the  yarn  it  spins, 
and  does  not  manufacture  into  clothing  any  con 
siderable  quantity  of  the  cloth  it  weaves.  The 
greater  part  of  both  yarn  and  cloth  is  coarse, 
though  some  mills  do  finer  work.  Little  bleaching 
or  printing,  however,  is  done.  The  South  is  a  land 
of  curious  economic  contrasts.  It  produces  sugar 
but  buys  confectionery.  It  produces  immense 
quantities  of  lumber  but  works  up  comparatively 
little,  and  this  mainly  into  simple  forms.  It  pro 
duces  iron  and  steel  in  considerable  quantities  but 
has  few  machine  shops  where  really  delicate  work 
can  be  done.  It  does  not  manufacture  motor  cars, 
electric  or  even  textile  machinery  or  machine  tools, 
nor  does  it  make  watches  or  firearms  in  appreciable 
quantities.  In  short,  the  South  carries  some  of  the 
most  important  raw  materials  only  a  step  or  two 
toward  their  ultimate  form  and  depends  upon 
other  parts  of  the  country  for  the  finished  article. 
Years  ago  the  story  was  told  of  a  Georgia  funeral 
at  which  that  State  furnished  only  the  corpse  and 
the  grave.  Georgia,  and  other  States  too,  can  do 
much  more  today,  if  the  funeral  be  not  too  elabo 
rate.  It  can  furnish  a  cotton  shroud,  each  year  of 
finer  quality.  The  knitting  mills  of  the  South  are 


196  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

able  to  supply  an  increasing  proportion  of  the  pop 
ulation  with  hose  and  underclothing,  and  a  number 
of  the  mills  are  gaining  a  national  trade  through 
advertising.  If  demanded,  Southern-made  shoes 
may  be  found,  and  a  Southern-made  coffin  may  be 
drawn  on  a  Southern-made  wagon  by  Southern- 
bred  horses  and  perhaps,  though  improbably,  in 
harness  of  local  manufacture  also. 

The  South  was  once  the  richest  section  of  the 
Union.  The  vicissitudes  of  the  Civil  War  rendered 
it  poor,  but  now  it  is  rapidly  growing  richer  and 
since  the  beginning  of  the  Great  War  has  shown  a 
phenomenal  accumulation  of  new  capital.  During 
this  great  struggle  some  of  the  cotton  mills  made 
in  a  single  month  profits  as  large  as  they  were 
formerly  accustomed  to  make  in  a  year.  Even 
though  the  farmer  received  for  his  cotton  much 
more  than  usual,  the  price  of  cloth  would  still  have 
yielded  a  profit  to  the  manufacturer  if  cotton  had 
been  twice  as  high.  Other  enterprises  have  like 
wise  been  profitable,  and  when  normal  conditions 
are  restored  this  capital  will  seek  new  investment. 
While  prophecy  is  dangerous  it  seems  probable 
that  manufacturing  in  the  South  will  grow  as  never 
before;  and  new  forms  of  investment  must  be 
found,  as  the  rural  districts  cannot  furnish  any 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  197 

greatly  increased  supply  of  labor  for  cotton  manu 
facturing  though  the  towns  can  supply  some  adult 
labor  for  other  forms  of  industry. 

The  labor  question  is  beginning  to  grow  serious 
in  some  localities,  though  it  is  difficult  to  discover 
whether  the  problem  is  chiefly  one  of  getting  labor 
at  all  or  of  getting  it  at  something  like  the  wages 
formerly  paid.  Apparently,  however,  the  indus 
trial  growth  of  the  South  has  been  more  rapid  than 
that  of  population.  Heretofore  the  farmer  has  had 
little  difficulty  in  obtaining  some  sort  of  assist 
ance  in  cultivating  his  land,  and  this  abundance  of 
labor  has  lessened  the  demand  for  agricultural  ma 
chinery.  Now  the  migration  of  the  negro  to  the 
North  has  created  a  shortage  of  labor  which  must 
force  the  farmer  to  purchase  machinery.  Too 
much  man  and  horse  power  has  been  employed 
upon  Southern  farms  in  proportion  to  the  results 
achieved.  The  South  has  been  producing  a  large 
value  per  acre  but  a  small  value  per  individual. 
If  the  South  is  to  become  permanently  prosperous, 
fewer  persons  must  do  the  work  and  must  even 
increase  the  production. 

A  practical  cotton -picking  machine  would  help 
to  solve  some  of  the  South's  problems,  as  any 
family  can  plant  and  cultivate  after  a  fashion 


198  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

much  more  cotton  than  it  can  pick.  Many  at 
tempts  to  produce  such  a  machine  have  been  made, 
but  simplicity,  efficiency,  and  cheapness  have  not 
yet  been  attained.  Like  the  reaper  and  binder,  a 
machine  of  this  sort  is  needed  for  only  a  small  por 
tion  of  the  year,  but  in  that  short  period  the  need 
is  extreme.  Such  a  machine  would  revolutionize 
the  tenant  system,  would  permit  a  larger  produc 
tion  of  food,  and  at  the  same  time  would  set  labor 
free  for  other  occupations.  Meanwhile  the  general 
rate  of  wages  in  agriculture  has  risen  and  must  rise 
still  further,  as  it  has  done  in  other  occupations. 
Any  student  of  economics  who  draws  his  conclu 
sions  from  observation  of  life  as  well  as  from  books 
realizes  how  large  a  part  custom  plays  in  determin 
ing  wages,  and  hitherto  farm  wages  have  been  very 
low  and  labor  has  been  inefficient  in  the  South. 
.  The  economic  future  of  the  South  must  rest  upon 
the  advance  of  the  farmer.  This  thesis  has  already 
been  developed  at  length  in  another  chapter,  where 
the  present  unsatisfactory  organization  and  con 
ditions  of  agriculture  were  also  discussed.  Im 
provement,  however,  is  already  becoming  evident. 
Cotton  furnishes  two-fifths  of  the  value  of  all  farm 
products,  with  corn,  hay,  tobacco,  and  wheat  fol 
lowing  in  the  order  named.  Gradually  the  West 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  199 

is  ceasing  to  be  the  granary  and  the  smokehouse 
of  the  Southern  farmer,  but  the  South  does  not 
yet  feed  itself.  In  1917  only  Maryland,  Delaware, 
Virginia,  and  Oklahoma  produced  a  surplus  of 
wheat,  though  it  is  estimated  that  the  South  as  a 
whole  reduced  its  deficiency  by  more  than  35,000,- 
000  bushels.  The  abnormal  prices  of  agricultural 
products  since  1915  have  brought  many  farmers 
out  of  debt  and  set  them  on  the  road  toward  pros 
perity,  but  many  have  not  yet  realized  that  they 
are  no  longer  objects  of  commiseration.  Though 
the  high  prices  of  war  times  have  brought  pros 
perity  to  the  farmer,  the  crying  nrrrmfhr  tndny  is 
a  larger  production  per  man  employed. 

The  political,  as  well  as  the  economic,  condition 
of  the  South  today  is  full  of  interest.  Politically 
the  common  man  is  in  control,  and  as  a  rule  he 
selects  men  of  his  own  type  to  represent  him.  The 
primary  was  almost  universal  in  the  South  when 
the  West  was  only  thinking  of  it  as  a  radical  in 
novation.  The  day  of  aristocratic  domination  is 
over,  if  indeed  it  ever  really  existed.  In  many 
instances  descent  from  well-known  ancestors  who 
have  held  high  positions  has  proved  a  positive  det 
riment  to  a  political  candidate  of  today.  Some  of 
the  successful  politicians,  as  might  be  expected,  are 


200  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

demagogues.  States  differ  in  the  number  of  poli 
ticians  of  this  type,  and  the  same  State  may  vary 
from  year  to  year.  It  may  at  the  same  time  send  a 
demagogue  and  a  statesman  to  the  Senate.  Men 
are  permitted  to  hold  offices,  both  national  and 
state,  for  longer  periods  than  formerly,  and,  as  a 
result,  in  recent  Democratic  Congresses  Southern 
men  have  held  the  most  important  chairmanships. r 
That  the  Southern  representation  in  Congress  is 
equal  in  ability,  culture,  and  character  to  that  of 
the  Old  South  or  to  that  of  even  thirty  years  ago 
can  hardly  be  seriously  maintained.  There  are  in 
Congress  a  few  men  today  who  recall  the  best  tradi 
tions  of  Southern  leadership;  there  are  more  who 
are  mediocre  and  parochial.  For  the  most  part 
they  come  from  law  offices  in  country  towns,  and 
have  the  virtues  and  the  limitations  of  their  en 
vironment.  They  are  honest  financially,  if  not  in 
tellectually,  and  do  not  consciously  yield  to  "the 
interests."  They  are  correct  in  their  private  lives 
and  likely  to  be  somewhat  bigoted.  Many  are 
convinced  that  cities  are  essentially  wicked  and 

1  North  Carolina,  for  example,  had  in  the  65th  Congress,  the  chair 
manship  of  the  Committees  on  Finance  and  on  Rules  in  the  Senate, 
and  on  Ways  and  Means,  Rules,  Judiciary,  and  Rivers  and  Harbors 
in  the  House,  besides  other  chairmanships  of  less  account.  Seldom 
in  the  whole  history  of  the  country  has  the  representation  of  any 
State  been  so  powerful. 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  201 

conceive  them  to  be  inhabited  by  vampires  and 
parasites.  Few  can  think  in  national  terms,  and 
fewer  have  either  knowledge  or  comprehension  of 
international  relations.  For  a  generation  the  South 
was  excluded  from  any  real  participation  in  na 
tional  affairs  and  was  wholly  occupied  with  local 
questions.  It  is  therefore  difficult  for  such  men  to 
realize  the  present  position  of  the  United  States  in 
world  politics.  With  much  perturbation  of  spirit 
the  rank  and  file  followed  the  President  in  the  steps 
leading  up  to  the  Great  War,  though  some  of  the 
would-be  leaders  attempted  to  rebel.  On  the 
other  hand,  some  of  the  most  valuable  men  in  the 
great  crisis  were  Southerners. 

The  dominant  party  in  the  South  is  called  Demo 
cratic,  but  the  name  has  little  of  its  original  signifi 
cance  today.  The  representative  is  likely  to  fol 
low  the  sentiment  of  his  district  if  he  can  discover 
it.  Some  of  the  Southern  Democrats  advocate 
doctrines  which  are  far  removed  from  traditional 
democracy,  for  Populistic  ideas  have  not  entirely 
died  out  and  some  of  the  farmers  still  demand 
special  privileges,  which,  however,  they  would  be 
the  first  to  deny  to  any  one  else.  Democracy  in 
the  South  really  means  the  white  man's  party,  and 
the  Democratic  doctrines  are  those  in  which  it  is 


202  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

thought  the  majority  of  the  white  men  of  the  State 
or  section  believe  for  the  time.  Though  the  negro 
is  no  longer  a  voting  power,  the  malign  influence  of 
the  negro  question  persists. 

Since  the  South  as  a  whole  favors  prohibition  of 
the  liquor  traffic  the  representatives  of  the  people 
are  almost  unanimously  in  favor  of  prohibition, 
forgetting  all  constitutional  scruples  and  all  ques 
tions  of  state  rights.  The  sentiment  for  woman 
suffrage  is  not  yet  overwhelming  and  consequently, 
as  might  be  surmised,  conscientious  scruples  pre 
vent  representatives  from  voting  for  the  exten 
sion  of  the  franchise.  In  two  States,  however,  the 
friends  of  woman  suffrage,  though  not  strong 
enough  to  pass  a  constitutional  amendment,  have 
realized  their  aim  by  a  brilliant  coup.  Since  most 
elections  are  practically  settled  in  the  primaries, 
the  legislatures  of  Texas  and  Arkansas  gave  women 
the  right  to  vote  in  such  elections.  In  other  words, 
women  were  given  the  right  to  help  nominate  can 
didates,  though  they  are  excluded  from  the  formal 
elections.  Whether  these  acts  will  stand  in  the 
courts  has  not  been  determined.  Missouri  and 
Tennessee  have  recently  given  national  suffrage  to 
women,  and  Oklahoma  has  given  full  suffrage. 

The  negro  has  been  practically  eliminated  as  a 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  203 

Voter,  but  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the 
Oklahoma  case  may  make  necessary  the  revision  of 
some  state  constitutions.  Enough  restrictions  re 
main,  however,  to  make  white  supremacy  reason 
ably  secure  for  the  present.  As  the  aim  is  one 
upon  which  the  white  South  is  practically  agreed, 
some  other  expedients  will  be  devised  if  those  now 
in  use  must  be  discarded.  There  is  absolutely  no 
desire  for  a  wholesale  restoration  of  the  negro  vote, 
though,  of  course,  Republican  conventions  de 
nounce  the  disfranchising  acts  and  constitutional 
amendments.  If  the  control  of  the  Southern 
States  should  be  gained  by  the  Republican  party, 
unlimited  negro  suffrage  would  hardly  be  restored 
unless  such  action  were  forced  by  the  party  in  the 
nation  at  large.  In  the  last  extremity  the  South 
would  suffer  loss  of  representation  rather  than  face 
the  consequences  of  unrestricted  negro  suffrage. 

Socially  the  South  is  in  a  state  of  ferment.  Old 
standards  are  passing,  some  of  them  very  rapidly, 
and  the  younger  generation  is  inclined  to  smile  at 
some  of  the  attitudes  of  the  old.  The  "typical 
Southerner"  who  flourishes  within  the  pages  of 
F.  Hopkinson  Smith  and  Thomas  Nelson  Page  is 
extremely  rare  outside  of  them.  Most  of  the  real 
Southern  colonels  are  dead,  and  the  others  are  too 


204  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

busy  running  plantations  or  cotton  mills  to  spend 
much  time  discussing  genealogy,  making  pretty 
speeches,  or  talking  about  their  honor.  Not  so 
many  colonels  are  made  as  formerly,  and  one  may 
travel  far  before  he  meets  an  individual  who  fits 
the  popular  idea  of  the  type.  He  is  likely  to  meet 
more  men  who  are  cold,  hard,  and  astute,  for  the 
New  South  has  developed  some  perfect  speci 
mens  of  the  type  whose  natural  habitat  had  been 
supposed  to  be  Ulster  or  the  British  Midlands  — 
religious,  narrow,  stubborn,  and  very  shrewd. 
/.-I  A  sense  of  social  responsibility  is  developing  in 
the  South.  Kindness  has  always  been  shown  to 
the  unfortunate  and  the  afflicted,  but  it  has  been 
exhibited  toward  individuals  by  individuals.  If  a 
Southerner  heard  of  a  case  of  distress  in  his  neigh 
borhood,  he  was  quick  to  respond.  Real  neigh- 
borliness  has  always  existed,  but  the  idea  of  re 
sponsibility  for  a  class  was  slow  to  develop.  Such 
an  idea  is  growing,  however.  More  attention  has 
been  given  to  the  condition  of  jails  and  almshouses 
during  the  last  ten  years  than  in  the  whole  preced 
ing  century.  To  be  sure,  the  section  is  now  be 
coming  rich  enough  to  afford  the  luxury  of  paupers, 
but  the  interest  in  socialized  humanitarian  en 
deavor  lies  deeper.  Perhaps  the  fact  that  negroes 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  205 

formed  the  larger  part  of  the  criminal  and  depend 
ent  classes  had  something  to  do  with  the  past  neg 
lect.  The  Old  Testament  doctrine  that  the  crimi 
nal  should  suffer  the  consequences  of  his  act  has 
had  its  effect,  and  the  factor  of  expense  has  not 
been  forgotten.  Some  of  the  States  still  permit 
county  commissioners  to  commit  the  care  of  the 
poor  to  the  lowest  bidder.  On  the  other  hand  the 
poorhouse  has  been  transformed  into  a  "Home  for 
the  Aged  and  Infirm"  in  some  States,  and  inspec 
tions  of  public  institutions  by  the  grand  jury  are 
becoming  more  than  merely  cursory.  State  boards 
of  charities  are  being  established,  and  men  have 
even  attacked  members  of  their  own  political  par 
ties  on  the  charge  of  incompetence,  cruelty,  or  neg 
lect  of  duty  as  keepers  of  prisons  or  almshouses. 
Hundreds  of  towns  have  their  associated  charities, 
and  scores  have  visiting  nurses.  Where  there  is 
only  one  nurse,  she  visits  negroes  as  well  as  whites, 
but  many  towns  support  one  or  more  for  negroes 
as  well. 

In  former  days  orphans  were  "bound  out, "  if  no 
relatives  would  take  them,  and  in  that  case  they 
might  not  always  be  properly  treated.  At  the 
present  time  not  only  States  and  municipalities 
support  asylums,  but  religious  denominations  and 


206  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

fraternal  orders  manage  many  well-conducted  in 
stitutions.  The  problem  of  the  juvenile  delin 
quent  is  being  recognized,  as  several  States  already 
have  institutions  for  his  care.  So  far  little  has  been 
done  for  the  young  negro  offender,  whose  home 
training  is  likely  to  be  most  deficient  and  who 
needs  firm  but  kindly  discipline;  but  the  conscious 
ness  of  responsibility  for  him  also  is  developing. 
Increasing  prosperity  alone  cannot  account  for  the 
multiplication  of  these  agencies  for  social  better 
ment.  A  new  social  interest  and  a  new  attitude  of 
mind  are  revealed  in  these  activities. 

There  are  still  some  communities  where  social 
position  is  based  upon  birth  and  where  the  old 
families  still  control;  but  these  regions  are  becom 
ing  less  numerous.  The  Old  South  was  never  quite 
so  aristocratic  as  the  North  believed,  and  today  the 
white  South  is  much  more  nearly  a  democracy  than 
New  England.  Even  in  1860  this  was  true  of  some 
parts  of  the  South,  as  compared  with  some  parts  of 
New  England.  The  rural  South  was  always  demo 
cratic  except  in  comparatively  limited  areas,  and 
it  is  so  everywhere  today.  In  those  communities 
which  have  felt  the  new  industrial  spirit  the  ques 
tion  of  birth  plays  little  part.  Any  presentable 
young  man  can  go  where  he  chooses.  In  such 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  207 

communities  the  tendency  —  apparently  inevitable 
in  industrial  societies  -  -  to  base  social  distinctions 
upon  wealth  and  business  success  is  beginning  to 
show  itself.  The  plutocrats,  however,  are  not  yet 
numerous  enough  to  form  a  society  of  their  own 
and  must  perforce  find  their  associates  among  their 
fellow  townsmen. 

One  does  not  lose  social  position  in  the  South  by 
engaging  in  business  or  by  working  with  his  hands. 
It  may  easily  happen  that  in  the  afternoon  you 
may  purchase  a  collar  or  a  pair  of  shoes  from  a 
young  man  whom  you  will  meet  in  the  evening  at 
the  house  of  the  local  magnate.  The  granddaugh 
ter  of  a  former  governor  or  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  comes  home  from  her  typewriter  and  her 
brother  from  the  cotton  mill  or  the  lumber  yard. 
Social  life  in  a  small  town  —  and  most  Southern 
towns  are  small  —  is  simple  and  unpretentious,  al 
though  here  too  the  influence  of  prosperity  is  be 
ginning  to  be  manifest.  Social  affairs  are  more 
elaborate  than  they  were  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago, 
and  there  is  also  less  casual  expression  of  informal 
hospitality.  The  higher  prices  of  food  and  the 
increasing  difficulties  of  the  servant  problem  have 
doubtless  put  some  restraint  upon  the  spirit  of 
hospitality  but  perhaps  more  important  is  the  fact 


208  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

that  more  of  the  men  must  keep  regular  hours  of 
business  and  that  women  are  developing  interests 
outside  the  home. 

Social  affairs  are  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of 
women.  The  older  men  come  somewhat  unwill 
ingly  to  receptions  in  the  evening,  but  the  presence 
of  a  man  at  an  afternoon  tea  is  unusual.  The 
Southerner  of  the  small  towns  and  cities  puts  away 
play  with  his  adolescence.  The  professional  man 
seldom  advertises  the  fact  that  he  has  gone  hunt 
ing  or  fishing  for  a  day  or  a  week,  as  it  is  thought  to 
be  not  quite  the  thing  for  a  lawyer  to  be  away  from 
his  office  for  such  a  purpose.  Golf  has  gained  no 
foothold  except  in  the  larger  towns,  and  even  there 
the  existence  of  the  country  club  is  often  precari 
ous.  Few  males  except  college  youths  will  be  seen 
on  the  tennis  court,  if  indeed  there  be  one  even  in 
a  town  of  five  thousand  people.  Professional  men 
keep  long  hours,  though  they  might  be  able  to 
do  all  their  work  in  half  the  time  they  spend  in 
their  offices. 

The  theory  of  the  Old  South  contemplated  differ 
ent  spheres  of  activity  for  men  and  women.  The 
combined  influence  of  St.  Paul  and  Sir  Walter 
Scott  is  responsible  for  a  part  of  this  theory,  though 
its  development  was  probably  inevitable  from  the 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  209 

structure  of  society  in  the  Old  South.  A  woman's 
place  was  the  home.  As  a  girl  she  might  live  for  en 
joyment  and  spend  her  time  in  a  round  of  visits,  but 
she  was  expected  to  give  up  frivolity  of  all  sorts 
when  she  married.  Society  in  the  South  was  al 
most  entirely  the  concern  of  the  unmarried.  Wom 
en  seldom  took  a  prominent  part  in  any  organi 
zation,  and  a  woman  speaking  in  public  was  re 
garded  as  a  great  curiosity.  Not  so  many  years 
ago  the  missionary  society,  and  perhaps  the  par 
sonage  aid  society,  were  almost  the  only  organiza 
tions  in  which  women  took  a  part.  In  recent  years 
church  and  educational  organizations  have  mul 
tiplied,  and  today  there  are  numerous  women's 
clubs  devoted  to  many  different  objects.  South 
ern  women  are  active  in  civic  leagues,  associated 
charities,  and  other  forms  of  community  endeavor; 
they  are  prominent  in  various  patriotic  societies; 
and  there  are  many  suffrage  societies.  Where  the 
laws  permit,  women  are  members  of  school  boards; 
they  often  head  organizations  of  teachers  com 
posed  of  both  men  and  women,  and  at  least  one 
woman  has  been  chosen  mayor  of  a  town. 

Women  have  done  more  than  the  men  to  keep 
alive  in  the  South  the  memories  of  the  past.  Per 
haps  because  the  women  of  the  older  generation 


210  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

suffered  more  than  the  men,  they  have  been  less 
willing  to  forget,  and  their  daughters  have  imbibed 
some  of  the  same  feeling.  The  Daughters  of  the 
Confederacy  have  been  more  bitter  than  the  Sons 
of  Veterans  or  than  the  veterans  themselves.  The 
effect  of  recent  events  upon  their  psychology  has 
been  interesting.  In  the  Great  War  their  sons  and 
grandsons  were  called  to  go  overseas,  and  the  na 
tional  government  was  brought  closer  to  them  than 
at  any  other  time  for  more  than  forty  years.  It  is 
idle  to  insist  that  before  this  there  had  been  any 
ardent  affection  in  the  South  for  the  United  States. 
There  had  been  acceptance  of  the  national  situa 
tion,  perhaps  an  intellectual  acknowledgment  that 
all  may  have  been  for  the  best,  but  no  warm  na 
tionalism  had  been  developed  before  the  Great  War 
came.  Loyalty  was  passive  rather  than  active. 

The  closing  of  the  chasm  has  been  hailed  many 
times,  notably  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  War,  but 
no  keen  observer  has  been  deceived  for  a  moment. 
The  recent  world  crisis,  however,  seems  to  have 
swept  aside  all  hindrances.  Perhaps  the  people, 
and  particularly  the  women,  were  unconsciously 
yearning  for  a  country  to  love  and  were  ready  for 
a  great  wave  of  patriotism  to  carry  them  with  it. 
During  the  week  following  the  declaration  of  war 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  211 

more  national  flags  were  displayed  in  the  South 
than  had  been  shown  in  the  memory  of  the  oldest 
resident,  for  except  on  public  buildings  the  national 
flag  has  not  been  commonly  displayed.  At  this 
time  houses  which  had  never  shown  a  flag  were 
draped,  and  merchants  were  chided  because  they 
could  not  supply  the  demand. 

Quite  as  a  matter  of  course  the  president  of  the 
Daughters  of  the  Confederacy  became  president  of 
the  Red  Cross  Auxiliary  which  was  organized  at 
once.  Women  were  eager  to  receive  instruction  in 
folding  bandages,  and  knitting  became  the  order  of 
the  day.  Women  threw  themselves  with  all  their 
energy  into  various  activities.  Canteen  work  was 
organized  if  the  town  was  a  junction  point,  and 
every  instalment  of  "selected  men"  -for  the 
word  "drafted"  was  rejected  almost  by  common 
consent  —  was  sent  away  with  some  evidence  of 
the  thoughtfulness  of  the  women  of  their  home 
town.  Women  have  been  prominent  in  raising 
money  for  the  Red  Cross  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and 
have  done  valiant  service  in  selling  War  Savings 
Stamps  and  Liberty  Bonds.  There  has  been  some 
shaking  of  heads,  and  some  exponents  of  the  shel 
tered  life  have  criticized  this  invasion  of  what  had 
been  supposed  to  be  the  sphere  of  men,  but  the 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

women  have  gone  ahead.  Indeed  their  alacrity 
has  seemed  to  indicate  that  they  are  glad  to  have 
an  excuse  to  throw  aside  the  restraints  which  have 
hitherto  bound  them.  Women  and  girls  have  ap 
proached  men  whom  they  did  not  know  on  the 
streets  to  ask  for  contributions  or  to  urge  the  pur 
chase  of  stamps  or  bonds,  and  only  those  who  know 
the  South  can  realize  what  a  departure  from  tradi 
tional  standards  of  feminine  conduct  such  actions 
indicate.  The  business  woman  has  been  a  familiar 
figure  for  years,  but  she  was  sheltered  by  the  walls 
of  her  office  or  shop.  On  the  street  she  was  held  to 
a  certain  code  and  was  criticized  if  she  failed  to 
observe  it.  But  here  also  the  old  order  is  changing 
and  giving  place  to  new. 

The  power  of  public  opinion  is  very  great  in  the 
South.  While  this  may  be  true  of  rural  or  semi- 
rural  communities  in  any  part  of  the  land,  nowhere 
else  does  collective  opinion  exert  such  overwhelm 
ing  force  as  in  the  Southern  States.  Perhaps  this 
phenomenon  is  a  survival  from  Reconstruction 
days  and  after.  Since  certain  attitudes  toward  the 
negro,  for  example,  were  defended  on  the  ground  of 
the  necessity  of  protecting  womanhood,  a  certain 
standard  must  be  demanded  from  women,  and 
every  man  claimed  a  sort  of  prescriptive  right  to 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  213 

assist  in  laying  down  rules  for  such  conduct  on  her 
part.  For  a  long  time  the  women  of  the  South, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  were  subject  to  these 
unwritten  rules.  Today  in  increasing  numbers  the 
women,  particularly  the  younger  women,  are  de 
claring  their  independence  by  their  conduct.  It 
has  not  become  a  feminist  revolt,  for  many  have  not 
thought  out  the  situation  and  have  not  recognized 
the  source  of  their  restrictions.  The  statutes  of 
some  of  the  Southern  States,  moreover,  still  con 
tain  many  of  the  old  common  law  restrictions  upon 
women's  independence  of  action.  More  and  more 
women  are  asserting  themselves,  however,  and  are 
demanding  the  right  to  guide  themselves.  The 
negro  woman  has  been  held  up  as  the  reason  for 
denying  the  vote  to  the  white  woman,  but  this  ex 
cuse  no  longer  is  accepted  willingly.  Women  are 
inquiring  why  the  vote  of  the  negro  women  should 
be  any  more  of  a  menace  than  the  vote  of  the  negro 
man,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  satisfactory  answer. 
If  the  women  make  up  their  minds  and  agree,  they 
will  gain  their  ends. 

Though  women  in  the  South  as  elsewhere  form  a 
majority  of  the  church  membership,  they  have  not 
had  equal  rights  in  church  administration.  Dur 
ing  1918,  several  denominations  granted  full  laity 


214  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

rights,  though  the  bishops  of  the  Southern  Method 
ist  Church  referred  the  action  of  the  General  Con 
ference  back  to  the  Annual  Conferences.  This  is 
of  course  only  a  temporary  delay.  An  unusually 
large  percentage  of  the  adult  population  holds 
membership  in  one  or  other  of  the  Protestant  de 
nominations.  The  Roman  Catholics  are  reported 
as  being  in  a  majority  in  Louisiana,  as  might  be 
expected  owing  to  French  descent,  and  in  Ken 
tucky,  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Texas  the  pro 
portion  is  considerable.  It  is  less  in  Arkansas, 
Oklahoma,  and  West  Virginia.  In  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mis 
sissippi,  and  Tennessee,  the  proportion  of  Catholics 
is  still  smaller,  though  the  latest  (1918)  official 
Catholic  statistics  for  the  seven  States  last  named 
show  7  bishops,  415  priests,  635  churches,  and  211,- 

,  000  Catholics.  The  principal  denominational  af 
filiations  of  the  Southern  people,  white  and  black, 
are  with  the  various  Baptist  or  Methodist  bodies, 

I  with  a  strong  Presbyterian  influence.  In  eleven  of 
the  Southern  States  the  Baptists  are  by  far  the 
largest  denomination,  though  the  Methodists  lead 
in  two.  These  two  denominations  taken  together 
are  in  a  large  majority  in  every  State  except  Dela 
ware,  Maryland,  and  Louisiana.  Presbyterians 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  215 

and  Episcopalians  are  well  distributed  throughout 
the  whole  section  and  have  exercised  an  influence 
altogether  out  of  proportion  to  their  numbers. 
Presbyterianism  came  in  with  the  great  Scotch- 
Irish  migration  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
though  many  of  the  blood  have  gone  over  to  other 
denominations,  the  influence  of  the  Shorter  Cate 
chism  still  persists.  In  the  older  States  attempts 
were  made  to  establish  the  Anglican  Church  in 
the  colonial  era,  and  the  governing  classes  were 
naturally  affiliated  with  it. 

Both  these  organizations  had  to  give  way  to  the 
great  wave  of  religious  enthusiasm  which  swept  the 
section  early  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Baptist 
and  Methodist  missionaries,  many  of  them  unlet 
tered  but  vigorous  and  powerful,  went  into  the 
remotest  districts  and  swept  the  population  into 
their  communions .  They  preached  a  narrow,  strait- 
laced,  Old  Testament  religion,  but  it  went  deep. 
They  believed  in  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Bible, 
and  so  far  as  they  could  they  interpreted  it  literally, 
laying  emphasis  upon  the  future,  the  rewards  of  the 
righteous,  and  the  tortures  of  the  damned.  Life 
upon  this  earth  was  regarded  as  simply  a  prepara 
tion  for  the  life  to  come.  One  is  sometimes  tempted 
to  believe  that  these  spiritual  guides  deprecated 


216  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

attempts  to  improve  conditions  here  on  earth  lest 
men  should  grow  to  think  less  of  a  future  abode. 
It  is  easy  to  understand  why  such  a  doctrine  of 
future  reward  should  have  appealed  to  negroes,  and 
it  is  perhaps  not  surprising  that  the  poor  upon  the 
frontier  likewise  found  comfort  and  solace  in  it. 
Years  ago  the  social  position  of  the  great  majority 
of  the  Methodists  and  Baptists  was  distinctly  be 
low  that  of  the  Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians. 
In  recent  years  many  Methodists  and  Baptists  have 
grown  prosperous.  Instead  of  being  bare  barns, 
their  church  edifices  are  often  the  most  ornate  and 
costly  in  the  town  or  city.  A  Methodist  or  a  Bap 
tist  can  have  none  of  the  former  feeling  of  mar 
tyrdom  now,  when  in  numbers  and  wealth  his 
denomination  is  so  powerful. J 

Though  the  evangelical  religious  teaching  of  for 
mer  days  has  been  modified  and  softened,  it  has 
been  softened  only  and  not  superseded.  The  re 
sult  of  this  emphasis  upon  the  other  world  has  been 
to  make  men  look  somewhat  askance  at  worldly 

1  Except  these  five,  other  church  organizations  have  few  members. 
There  are  a  few  Congregationalists,  almost  entirely  the  result  of  post- 
bellum  missions  to  the  negroes.  White  and  negro  Lutheran  churches 
are  scattered  through  the  Southern  States,  and  in  Kentucky  and  Ten 
nessee  the  Disciples  are  important.  Here  and  there  other  denom 
inations  have  gained  a  foothold,  but  their  numbers  are  insignificant 
in  the  South  as  a  whole. 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  217 

amusement.  The  idea  so  prevalent  in  other  sec 
tions  that  the  people  of  the  South  are  convivial  and 
mercurial  in  temperament  is  erroneous.  It  would 
be  more  nearly  correct  to  say  that  gravity,  amount 
ing  almost  to  austerity,  is  a  distinguishing  mark  of 
Southerners.  In  any  Southern  gathering  repre 
senting  the  people  as  a  whole  there  is  little  mirth. 
There  is  much  more  Puritanism  in  the  South  today 
than  remains  in  New  England.  The  Sabbath  is  no 
longer  observed  so  strictly  as  twenty  years  ago, 
perhaps,  but  only  recently  has  it  been  considered 
proper  to  receive  visits  on  Sunday  or  to  drive  into 
the  country.  As  for  Sunday  golf  or  tennis,  the 
average  community  would  stand  horror-struck  at 
such  a  spectacle.  Sermons  are  frequently  preached 
against  dancing,  card-playing,  and  theater-going, 
and  members  have  been  dismissed  from  Baptist, 
Methodist,  and  Presbyterian  churches  for  indulging 
in  these  forbidden  amusements. 

The  older  generation,  however,  is  losing  in  the  j 
fight  to  maintain  the  old  standards  of  conduct  and  \ 
belief.     In  spite  of  disapprobation,  bridge  clubs 
flourish  and  the  young  people  will  dance  and  go  to 
the  theater,  though  even  yet  most  Southern  cities 
are  known  as  "poor  show  towns."     Today  men  go 
to  the  post  office  on  Sunday,  read  the  Sunday 


218  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

papers,  and  ride  on  Sunday  trains.  The  motor  car 
makes  its  appearance  on  Sunday,  though  it  would 
be  interesting  to  know  how  many  of  those  riding 
really  feel  conscience  free,  for  many  who  have 
liberal  ideas  still  have  Calvinistic  nerves.  Young 
ministers  occasionally  preach  sermons  for  which 
they  would  have  been  charged  with  heresy  not 
many  years  ago  and  openly  read  books  which  would 
have  been  considered  poisonous  then.  Men  speak 
of  evolution  now  and  show  familiarity  with  authors 
who  were  anathema  to  the  older  generation. 

Lately  some  of  the  town  and  city  churches  have 
been  developing  the  social  and  humanitarian  side 
of  religious  work,  but  the  greatest  number  manage 
to  collect  only  enough  money  to  keep  the  organiza 
tion  alive.  They  are  like  engines  which  can  get  up 
enough  steam  to  turn  the  wheels  slowly  and  pain 
fully  but  lack  sufficient  power  to  do  effective  work. 
In  fact,  there  is  strong  opposition  to  any  pastor 
who  attempts  to  influence  the  decision  of  the 
congregation  on  any  social  question.  Many  towns 
and  rural  communities  have  several  churches, 
though  their  population  and  wealth  may  be  hardly 
large  enough  to  support  one  properly.  This  condi 
tion,  however,  is  not  peculiar  to  the  South.  Here  and 
there  in  the  country  districts  a  new  type  of  pastor 


OF  TODAY  219 

has  appeared.  He  is  a  good  farmer  himself,  in 
terested  in  better  farming  and  able  to  discuss  ferti 
lizers  and  methods  with  his  parishioners.  He  is  not 

?aid  that  prosperity  will  turn  his  members  away 
irom  their  church  duties  but  considers  that  im 
proving  the  economic  conditions  of  the  neighbor 
hood  is  quite  as  vital  a  part  of  his  work  as  minister 
ing  to  their  spiritual  needs.  Largely  because  of 
the  work  of  some  of  these  men  the  exodus  to  the 
towns  has  slackened  in  some  neighborhoods  and 
contributions  to  the  work  of  the  church  have  been 
greatly  increased. 

This  movement  from  country  to  town  has  be 
come  a  serious  matter  in  some  localities.  The 
social  level  of  neighborhoods  once  attractive  be 
cause  of  the  presence  of  families  of  intelligence 
and  character  has  fallen.  The  land  of  the  fami 
lies  which  have  moved  to  towns  has  been  turned 
over  to  tenants,  either  whites  of  a  lower  status 
or  negroes,  the  standards  of  the  community  have 
suffered  in  consequence,  and  the  atmosphere  of 
some  of  these  communities  has  become  depressing. 
Such  conditions,  however,  are  not  peculiar  to  the 
South  but  have  been  observed  in  central  New  York 
and  in  New  England.  Better  roads,  the  motor 
car,  and  improvement  in  communications  have 


220  THE  NEW  QUTTH 

helped  to  check  this  cityward  movement,  and,  on 
the  whole,  the  educational,  economic,  and  social 
standards  of  the  country  districts  generally  are 
higher  than  they  were  ten  years  ago. 

Generally  speaking,  the  South  is  a  law-abiding 
section.  This  is  true  even  when  the  negroes  are 
included,  and  as  the  prohibitory  laws  are  enforced 
more  strictly,  it  is  becoming  increasingly  true.  The 
chain  gang  which  was  so  common  years  ago  has 
been  discontinued  in  hundreds  of  counties,  chiefly 
for  lack  of  convicts,  though  partly  for  humanitarian 
reasons.  The  offenses  of  the  negro  were,  for  the 
most  part,  petty  larceny,  gambling,  and  offenses 
against  public  order.  Affrays  are  certainly  less 
frequent  since  the  spread  of  prohibition,  and  lar 
ceny  seems  to  be  decreasing,  though  statistics  of 
crime  are  few  and  unreliable.  The  gambling  is 
usually  nothing  more  than  "craps,"  or  "African 
billiards"  as  they  call  it  now.  Among  the  whites, 
offenses  against  property  are  few.  In  many  rural 
counties  a  white  man  is  seldom  charged  with  theft, 
fraud,  or  forgery.  A  white  man  is  occasionally 
arraigned  for  "disposing  of  mortgaged  property," 
or  for  malicious  mischief,  including  the  destruction 
of  property. 

\The  homicide  rate,  however,  is  high.     Generally 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY 

I 

the  figures  given  include  the  negro,  and  he  is  some-  j 
what  more  homicidal  than  the  white,  but  the  white 
rate  is  among  the  highest  in  the  world.  Blood 
feuds  actually  exist  in  the  Southern  Appalachians, 
though  perhaps  their  number  is  not  so  large  as  is 
commonly  believed.  The  moonshiner's  antipathy 
to  revenue  officers  leads  him  to  use  firearms  upon 
occasion,  but  homicide  occurs  also  in  intelligent 
communities  where  the  general  tone  is  high.  In 
dividuals  of  excellent  standing  in  business  or  pro 
fessional  life  sometimes  shoot  to  kill  their  fellows 
and  in  the  past  have  usually  escaped  the  extreme 
penalty  and  often  have  avoided  punishment  al 
together.  It  would  seem  that  life  is  held  rather 
cheaply  in  many  Southern  communities. 

Until  recently  much  of  the  South  has  remained  a 
frontier,  as  some  of  it  is  to  this  day,  and  in  frontier! 
communities  men  are  accustomed  to  take  the  law 
into  their  own  hands  and  are  reluctant  to  depend 
upon  inadequate  or  ineffective  police  protection. 
Despising  physical  cowardice,  the  individual  prides 
himself  upon  his  ability  to  maintain  his  rights  and 
to  protect  his  honor  without  calling  for  assistance. 
Frontiersmen  are  quick  to  resent  an  affront,  and 
when  their  veracity  is  impugned  they  fight.  The 
word  "lie"  is  not  considered  a  polite  mode  of 


222  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

expressing  dissent.  All  over  the  South,  in  every 
class  of  society,  one  finds  this  sensitiveness  to  an 
accusation  of  lack  of  veracity.  Such  a  theory  of 
life  dies  hard.  The  presence  of  a  less  advanced 
race  is  perhaps  not  conducive  to  self-control.  The 
dominant  race,  determined  to  maintain  its  position 
of  superiority,  is  likely  to  resent  a  real  or  fancied 
affront  to  its  dignity.  A  warped  sense  of  honor,  a 
sort  of  belated  theory  of  chivalry,  is  responsible  for 
some  acts  of  violence.  A  seducer  is  likely  to  be 
called  to  account  and  the  slayer,  by  invoking 
the  "unwritten  law,"  has  usually  been  acquitted. 
Such  a  case  lends  itself  to  the  display  of  flamboy 
ant  oratory,  and  the  plea  of  "protecting  the  home" 
has  set  many  murderers  free.  Perhaps  the  South 
is  becoming  less  susceptible  to  oratory ;  at  all  events 
this  plea  now  sometimes  fails  to  win  a  jury.  De 
fendants  are  occasionally  convicted,  though  the 
verdicts  are  usually  rendered  for  manslaughter  and 
not  for  murder. 

Public  sentiment  is  not  yet  ready,  however,  to 
declare  every  intentional  homicide  murder.  Some 
point  to  the  low  rate  of  white  illegitimacy  as  a 
justification  of  the  deterring  force  of  the  "un 
written  law, "  not  realizing  that  such  a  defense  is 
really  a  reflection  upon  womanhood.  Others  allow 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  223 

their  detestation  of  physical  cowardice  to  blind 
them  to  the  danger  of  allowing  men  to  take  the  law 
into  their  own  hands.  The  individualism  of  the 
imperfectly  socialized  Southerner  does  not  yet  per 
mit  him  to  think  of  the  law  as  a  majestic,  imper 
sonal  force  towering  high  above  the  individual.  It 
is  true  that  the  Southerner  is  law-abiding  on  the 
whole,  but  he  usually  obeys  the  laws  because  they 
represent  his  ethical  concepts  and  not  because  of 
devotion  to  the  abstract  idea  of  law. 

There  is  danger,  however,  in  the  attempt  to 
state  dogmatically  what  the  Southerner  thinks  or 
believes.  There  is  much  diversity  of  opinion 
among  the  younger  Southerners,  for  many  ques 
tions  are  in  a  state  of  flux,  and  there  is  as  yet  no 
point  of  crystallization.  There  is  no  leader  either 
in  politics  or  in  journalism  who  may  be  said  to 
utter  the  voice  of  the  South.  In  the  earlier  part 
of  this  period  Henry  Watterson,  of  the  Louisville 
Courier- Journal,  spoke  almost  with  authority.  The 
untimely  death  of  Henry  W.  Grady,  editor  of  the 
Atlanta  Constitution,  deprived  the  South  of  a 
spokesman  and  he  has  had  no  successor.  There 
is  no  newspaper  which  has  any  considerable  influ 
ence  outside  the  State  in  which  it  is  published,  and 
few  have  a  circulation  throughout  even  their  entire 


224  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

State.  There  are  several  newspapers  which  are 
edited  with  considerable  ability,  on  the  political 
side  at  least,  but  none  has  a  circulation  sufficiently 
large  to  make  it  a  real  power.  All  are  more  or  less 
parochial.  The  country  papers,  which  are  frankly 
and  necessarily  local,  exercise  more  influence  than 
the  papers  of  the  cities,  though  the  circulation  of 
the  latter  is  increasing. 

The  Southerner  is  reading  more  than  he  once  did. 
Some  of  the  national  weeklies  have  a  considerable 
circulation  in  the  South,  and  the  national  maga 
zines  are  read  in  increasing  numbers.  Good  book 
stores  are  not  common,  for  the  people  generally 
have  not  learned  to  buy  many  books  since  they  have 
been  able  to  afford  them.  The  women's  clubs, 
however,  interest  their  members  in  the  '"best-sell 
ers"  and  pass  these  books  from  one  to  another. 
Some  members  may  always  be  depended  upon  to 
purchase  serious  books  as  their  contribution  to  the 
club.  The  number  of  public  libraries  in  the  South 
is  considerable,  and  the  educational  administra 
tion  of  several  of  the  States  is  striving  to  put  a 
well-selected  library  into  every  public  school. l 

1  North  Carolina  has  established  over  five  thousand  of  these  schoo1 
libraries.  The  State  pays  one-third  of  the  cost,  the  county  one-third, 
and  the  patrons  of  the  school  the  remainder.  Additional  volumes  are 
furnished  by  the  same  plan. 


THE  SOUTH  OF  TODAY  225 

The  Southerner  is  not  only  reading  more  books, 
but  he  is  also  writing  more.  A  man  or  woman  who 
has  written  a  book  is  no  longer  a  curiosity.  In  the 
closing  decade  or  two  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  work  of  a  group  of  Southern  writers  led  a  dis 
tinguished  critic  to  rank  them  as  the  most  signifi 
cant  force  in  American  letters.  Such  a  high  valua 
tion  of  the  writers  of  the  present  day  could  hardly 
be  made,  but  there  is  a  much  larger  number  than 
formerly  whose  work  is  acceptable.  Members  of 
college  faculties,  and  others,  produce  annually 
numerous  books  of  solid  worth  in  science,  history, 
biography,  economics,  and  sociology.  Volumes  of 
recollections  and  reminiscences  interesting  to  the 
student  of  the  past  appear,  and  much  local  and 
state  history  has  been  rescued  from  oblivion.  Some 
theological  books  are  written,  but  there  is  little 
published  on  national  questions.  The  output  of 
verse  is  small,  and  few  essays  are  published.  As 
few  Southerners  are  extensive  travelers,  there  are 
necessarily  few  books  of  travel  and  description. 
Though  most  of  the  people  live  in  a  rural  or  semi- 
rural  environment,  very  little  is  printed  dealing 
with  nature.  There  are  many  writers  of  fiction, 
though  few  can  be  called  artists. 

The  New  South  is  full  of  contradictions  and 

is 


226  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

paradoxes.  It  is  living  generations  of  social  and 
economic  changes  in  decades,  and  naturally  all  the 
people  do  not  keep  an  even  pace.  One  may  find 
culture  that  would  grace  a  court  alongside  incredi 
ble  ignorance;  distinguished  courtesy  and  sheer 
brutality;  kindness  and  consideration  of  the  rights 
and  feelings  of  others  together  with  cruelty  almost 
unbelievable.  In  some  sections  are  to  be  found 
machines  belonging  to  the  most  advanced  stage 
of  industry,  while  nearby  are  in  operation  economic 
processes  of  the  rudest  and  most  primitive  sort. 
One  who  knows  the  South  must  feel,  however,  that 
its  most  striking  characteristic  is  hopefulness. 
The  dull  apathy  of  a  generation  ago  is  rapidly  dis 
appearing,  and  the  South  lifts  up  its  eyes  toward 
the  future. 


THE  REPUDIATION  OF  STATE  DEBTS 

THE  debt  of  Mississippi  was  small  and  that  of  Texas 
was  not  excessive,  and  neither  made  any  attempt  to 
repudiate  the  obligations.  The  $4,000,000  issued  in 
Florida  for  state  aid  to  railroads  was  large  for  the  small 
population  and  the  scanty  resources  of  that  State,  but 
this  issue  was  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Florida.  The  Reconstruction  debt  of  Alabama 
was  large,  about  $20,000,000,  besides  accrued  interest 
which  the  State  could  not  pay.  In  1873,  the  carpet 
bag  government  attempted  to  fund  these  bonds  at 
twenty-five  cents  on  the  dollar.  The  Funding  Act  of 
1876  repudiated  $4,700,000  outright,  reduced  the  bonds 
loaned  to  one  railroad  from  $5,300,000  to  $1,000,000, 
gave  land  in  payment  of  $2,000,000  more,  scaled  other 
bonds  one-half,  and  funded  still  others  at  par  excluding 
interest.  About  $13,000,000  in  all  was  repudiated  and 
the  State  was  left  with  a  debt  of  less  than  $10,000,000. r 
During  1868  and  1869  bond  issues  to  the  amount  of 
nearly  $28,000,000  were  authorized  in  North  Carolina, 
but  not  all  of  this  amount  was  issued.  From  the 
$13,313,000  which  was  outstanding  at  the  end  of  the 
carpetbag  regime,  the  State  had  received  little  or  no 
benefit.  Interest  was  not  paid  upon  this  sum  or  upon 

1  W.  A.  Scott,  The  Repudiation  of  State  Debts,  p.  63,  but  see  also 
W.  L.  Fleming,  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction  in  Alabama,  p.  580  ff. 

227 


228  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

the  previous  issues,  and  the  total  debt  increased  rap 
idly.  Unsuccessful  attempts  to  compromise  with  the  cred 
itors  were  made  in  1874  and  1875,  but  not  until  1879 
was  the  matter  settled.  The  Reconstruction  bonds  were 
repudiated  outright,  and  the  legitimate  debt  of  the 
State  was  funded  at  from  fifteen  to  forty  cents  on  the 
dollar.  No  provision  was  made  for  the  unpaid  interest. 
This  compromise  did  not  include  the  pre-war  bonds 
issued  to  aid  the  North  Carolina  Railroad.  This  cor 
poration  was  a  going  concern,  and  as  the  result  of  a  suit 
the  stock  had  been  sequestrated.  A  compromise  with 
the  holders  of  these  bonds  was  made  at  eighty  per  cent 
of  par  and  interest.  As  a  result  of  this  wholesale  re 
pudiation  the  debt  of  the  State  was  so  reduced  that  it 
could  be  carried.  In  all  over  $22,000,000  besides  other 
millions  of  accrued  interest  were  repudiated.1 

Not  all  of  the  creditors  of  the  State  accepted  the  com 
promise  at  once,  but  the  offer  was  left  open  and,  as  the 
years  went  on  and  the  State  showed  no  signs  of  a  change 
of  intention,  the  bondholders  gradually  recognized  the 
inevitable.  In  1893,  nearly  fifteen  years  after  this  offer 
had  been  made,  more  than  $1,000,000  of  the  old  bonds 
were  still  outstanding.  In  1901,  a  New  York  firm  pre 
sented  to  the  State  of  South  Dakota  ten  of  the  class 
which  had  been  made  convertible  at  twenty-five  cents 
on  the  dollar.  That  State  brought  suit  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  and  collected  the  amount 
sued  for. 2  No  progress  has  been  made  in  collecting  the 
special  tax  bonds  issued  during  Reconstruction  though 
some  New  York  bond  houses  hope  against  hope,  and  the 

1  J.  G.  de  R.  Hamilton,  Reconstruction  in  North  Carolina,  pp.  448- 
449,659-661. 

2  South  Dakota  v.  North  Carolina,  192  U.  S.  Rep.,  p.  286. 


THE  REPUDIATION  OF  STATE  DEBTS  229 

Council  of  the  Corporation  of  Foreign  Bondholders  in 
its  annual  reports  plaintively  regrets  the  perversity  of 
this  and  other  Southern  States. 

South  Carolina  presented  such  a  carnival  of  incom 
petence  and  corruption  that  the  total  amount  of  bonds 
issued  has  never  been  accurately  determined.  Appar 
ently  there  was  a  valid  debt  of  about  $6,666,000  in  1868, 
which  was  increased  to  about  $29,000,000  within  three 
years.  The  carpetbag  Legislature  of  1873  repudiated 
$6,000,000  of  this  debt,  and  attempted  to  compromise 
the  remainder  at  fifty  per  cent,  but  the  State  could  not 
carry  even  this  reduced  amount.  Judicial  decisions  de 
stroyed  the  validity  of  some  millions  more,  and  finally 
the  debt,  reduced  to  something  more  than  $7,000,000, 
was  funded.  The  debt  of  Georgia  was  increased  di 
rectly  and  by  indorsement  of  railroad  bonds.  The 
Legislature  of  1872  declared  $8,500.000  void  and  in 
1875  repudiated  about  $600,000  more. 

Louisiana  suffered  most  from  excessive  taxation.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  carpetbag  period  the  debt  was 
about  $11,000,000,  but  railroad  and  levee  bonds  were 
issued  rapidly.  Though  a  constitutional  amendment  in 
1870  forbade  the  State  to  contract  debts  in  excess  of 
$25,000,000,  the  Legislature  went  steadily  on  until  in 
1872  the  debt  was  variously  estimated  at  from  $41,000,- 
000  to  $48,000,000.  In  1874,  when  W.  P.  Kellogg  was 
Governor,  the  State  began  to  fund  valid  obligations  at 
sixty  cents  on  the  dollar.  By  action  of  the  courts  the 
debt  was  reduced  to  about  $12,000,000  bearing  inter 
est  at  seven  per  cent.  The  State  could  not  pay  the  inter 
est  on  this  sum,  and  the  constitutional  convention  of 
1879  made  drastic  reductions  in  the  interest  rate.  Both 
New  York  and  New  Hampshire,  acting  ostensibly  for 


230  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

themselves  but  really  in  behalf  of  their  citizens,  brought 
suit,  but  the  Supreme  Court  threw  out  the  cases  on  the 
ground  that  the  actions  were  attempts  to  evade  the  con 
stitutional  provision  forbidding  a  citizen  to  bring  an  ac 
tion  against  a  State.  The  bondholders  still  refused  to 
accept  the  reduction,  and  the  Supreme  Court  in  1883 
described  the  ordinance  as  a  violation  of  the  contract  of 
1874  but  a  violation  without  a  remedy.  Meanwhile 
the  Legislature,  after  consultation  with  the  bondholders, 
had  agreed  to  a  slight  increase  in  the  rate  of  interest;  and 
in  1884,  this  compromise  was  ratified  by  an  amendment 
to  the  constitution. 

The  debt  of  Arkansas  was  not  so  difficult  to  settle. 
The  issue  of  about  $7,500,000  for  railroads  and  levees 
during  Reconstruction  was  declared  unconstitutional  in 
1877-78,  and  the  so-called  Holford  bonds,  issued  in  aid 
of  banks,  were  repudiated  by  the  constitutional  conven 
tion  of  1884.  The  total  amount  repudiated  and  de 
clared  void  by  the  courts  was  nearly  $13,000,000.  Ten 
nessee  also  struggled  with  a  debt  which  it  was  unwilling 
and  perhaps  unable  to  pay.  The  amount,  which  in 
1861  was  about  $21,000,000,  incurred  principally  in  aid 
of  railroads  and  turnpikes,  was  largely  increased  under 
Republican  rule,  and  most  of  the  money  received  for  the 
bonds  was  stolen  or  wasted.  No  interest  had  been  paid 
during  the  War,  and  the  accrued  interest  was  funded 
in  1865,  1869,  and  1873.  The  debt  was  somewhat  re 
duced  by  permitting  the  railroads  to  pay  their  debt  in 
state  bonds  which  they  purchased  cheaply  on  the  mar 
ket.  Other  defaulting  railroads  were  sold,  but  the  State 
still  could  not  meet  the  interest.  Many  discussions 
with  the  creditors  were  held,  but  the  people  had  the 
idea  that  much  of  the  debt  was  fraudulent  and  they 


THE  REPUDIATION  OF  STATE  DEBTS  231 

consequently  voted  down  proposals  which  they  thought 
too  liberal  to  the  creditors.  The  question  temporarily 
split  the  Democratic  party,  but  after  much  discussion  a 
long  act  was  passed  in  1883  which  finally  settled  the 
matter.  A  part  of  the  debt,  with  interest,  was  funded 
at  76  to  80  cents  on  the  dollar.  The  major  part  was 
funded  at  50  cents  on  the  dollar  with  interest  thereafter 
at  three  per  cent. 

The  financial  difficulties  of  Virginia  excited  more  in 
terest  than  did  those  of  any  other  commonwealth,  for 
this  State  had  the  largest  pre-war  debt.  Its  $33,000,000 
with  accrued  interest  had  amounted  to  about  $45,000,- 
000  in  1870.  In  1871  the  question  of  settlement  was 
taken  up;  one-third  of  the  debt  was  assigned  to  West 
Virginia,  and  the  remainder  was  funded  into  new  bonds 
bearing  interest  at  five  and  six  per  cent.  The  coupons 
were  made  receivable  for  taxes  and  other  debts  due 
the  State.  The  amount  recognized  was  beyond  the 
ability  of  the  State  to  pay,  and  many  members  of 
both  parties  felt  that  some  compromise  must  be  made. 
So  many  of  the  coupons  were  paid  in  for  taxes  that 
money  to  keep  the  Government  going  was  found  with 
difficulty.  Various  attacks  on  the  privilege  were  made, 
but  these  "coupon  killers"  were  usually  declared  un 
constitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  Meanwhile  the  contest  had  split  the  State. 
Some  were  in  favor  of  paying  the  whole  debt  accord 
ing  to  the  agreement  of  1871;  others  wished  to  re 
duce  the  interest  rate;  while  the  radicals  wished  to 
repudiate  part  of  the  debt  and  reduce  the  rate  of 
interest  upon  the  remainder.  The  last  named  faction, 
under  the  leadership  of  H.  H.  Riddleberger,  organized 
a  political  party  known  as  the  Readjusters  and  in  1879 


232  THE  NEW  SOUTH 

captured  the  Legislature.  Riddleberger  then  introduced 
a  bill  which  scaled  down  the  debt  to  less  than  $20,000,- 
000,  but  it  was  vetoed  by  the  Governor.  Two  years 
later  the  new  party  captured  both  Governorship  and 
Legislature  and  sent  General  William  Mahone  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  where  he  usually  voted  with  the 
Republican  party. 

The  Legislature  repassed  the  Riddleberger  bill,  which 
the  creditors  refused  to  accept,  and  an  ingenious  "cou 
pon  killer."  Similar  acts  were  passed  in  1886  and 
1887.  The  United  States  Supreme  Court,  before  which 
these  acts  were  brought,  pronounced  them  unconstitu 
tional  in  that  they  impaired  the  obligation  of  contracts, 
but  the  Court  also  stated  that  there  was  no  way  in 
which  the  State  could  be  coerced.  Meanwhile  the 
credit  of  the  State  was  nonexistent,  and  all  business 
suffered.  In  1890  a  commission  reported  in  favor  of 
compromising  the  debt  on  the  lines  of  the  Riddleberger 
Act  and,  in  1892,  $19,000,000  in  new  bonds  were  ex 
changed  for  about  $28,000,000  of  the  older  issue.  In 
terest  was  to  be  2  per  cent  for  ten  years  and  then  3  per 
cent  for  ninety  more. 

West  Virginia  steadfastly  refused  to  recognize  the 
share  of  the  debt  assigned  to  her  on  the  ground  that  the 
principal  part  had  been  incurred  for  internal  improve 
ments  in  Virginia  proper,  and  that  one-third  was  an  ex 
cessive  proportion.  The  matter  dragged  along  until 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  decided  in 
March,  1911,  that  the  equitable  proportion  due  by  West 
Virginia  was  23.5  per  cent  instead  of  one-third.  West 
Virginia,  however,  made  no  move  to  carry  out  the  deci 
sion,  and  in  1914  Virginia  asked  the  Court  to  proceed  to 
a  final  decree.  A  special  master  was  appointed  to  take 


THE  REPUDIATION  OF  STATE  DEBTS  233 

testimony,  and  on  June  14,  1915,  the  Supreme  Court 
announced  that  the  net  share  of  West  Virginia  was 
$12,393,929  plus  $8,178,000  interest.  The  State,  by 
a  compromise  with  Virginia  in  1919,  assumed  a  debt 
amounting  to  $14,500,000. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

MANY  of  the  references  for  the  period  of  Reconstruc 
tion  are  also  valuable  for  the  subject  of  this  volume,  as 
it  is  impossible  to  understand  the  South  today  with 
out  understanding  the  period  which  preceded  it.  Much 
enlightening  material  is  to  be  found  in  W.  L.  Flem 
ing's  Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction  (2  vols., 
1906-07)  and  in  the  series  of  monographs  on  Recon 
struction  published  by  the  students  of  Professor  W.  A. 
Dunning  of  Columbia  University,  among  which  may 
be  mentioned  J.  W.  Garner's  Reconstruction  in  Mis 
sissippi  (1901);  W.  L.  Fleming's  Civil  War  and  Recon 
struction  in  Alabama  (1905);  J.  G.  de  R.  Hamilton's 
Reconstruction  in  North  Carolina  (1914) ;  C.  M.  Thomp 
son's  Reconstruction  in  Georgia,  Economic,  Social, 
Political,  1865-1872  (1915). 


GENERAL   WORKS 

Some  of  the  older  books  are  interesting  from  the 
historical  standpoint,  but  conditions  in  the  South  have 
changed  so  rapidly  that  these  works  give  little  help  in 
understanding  the  present.  Among  the  most  interest 
ing  are  A.  W.  Tourgee's  Appeal  to  Caesar  (1884), 
based  upon  the  belief  that  the  South  would  soon  be 

235 


236  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

overwhelmingly  black.  Alexander  K.  McClure,  in 
The  South;  its  Industrial,  Financial  and  Political  Condi 
tion  (1886),  was  one  of  the  first  to  take  a  hopeful  view 
of  the  economic  development  of  the  Southern  States. 
W.  D.  Kelley's  The  Old  South  and  the  New  (1887)  con 
tains  the  observations  of  a  shrewd  Pennsylvania  poli 
tician  who  was  intensely  interested  in  the  economic 
development  of  the  United  States.  Walter  H.  Page's 
The  Rebuilding  of  Old  Commonwealths  (1902)  is  a  keen 
analysis  of  the  factors  which  have  hindered  progress 
in  the  South. 

No  recent  work  fully  covers  this  period.  Most 
books  deal  chiefly  with  individual  phases  of  the  ques 
tion.  Some  valuable  material  may  be  found  in  the 
series  The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation,  13  vols., 
(1909-13)  but  not  all  of  this  information  is  trustworthy. 
The  Library  of  Southern  Literature  (16  vols.,  1907- 
1913),  edited  by  E.  A.  Alderman  and  Joel  Chandler 
Harris,  contains  selections  from  Southern  authors  and 
biographical  notes.  Albert  Bushnell  Hart's  The  South 
ern  South  (1910)  is  the  result  of  more  study  and  in 
vestigation  than  any  other  Northerner  has  given  to 
the  sociology  of  the  South,  but  the  author's  prejudices 
interfere  with  the  value  of  his  conclusions.  The  late 
Edgar  Gardner  Murphy  in  Problems  of  the  Present 
South  (1904)  discusses  with  wisdom  and  sanity  many 
Southern  questions  which  are  still  undecided.  A 
series  of  valuable  though  unequal  papers  is  The  New 
South  in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Politi 
cal  and  Social  Science,  vol.  35  (1910).  Another  co 
operative  work  which  contains  material  of  value  is 
Studies  in  Southern  History  and  Politics,  edited  by  J. 
W.  Garner  (1914).  Why  the  Solid  South,  edited  by  H. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  237 

A.  Herbert  (1890),  should  also  be  consulted.  A  bitter 
arraignment  of  the  South  as  a  whole  is  H.  E.  Tremain's 
Sectionalism  Unmasked  (1907).  The  best  book  on  the 
Appalachian  South  is  Horace  Kephart's  Our  Southern 
Highlanders  (1913).  William  Garrott  Brown's  The 
Lower  South  in  American  History  (1902)  contains  some 
interesting  matter. 


ECONOMIC  DEVELOPMENT 

There  are  several  excellent  works  on  cotton  and  the 
cotton  trade,  chief  among  which  are  M.  B.  Ham 
mond's  The  Cotton  Industry  (1897)  and  C.  W.  Burkett 
and  C.  H.  Poe's  Cotton,  its  Cultivation,  Marketing, 
Manufacture,  and  the  Problems  of  the  Cotton  World 
(1906).  D.  A.  Tompkins,  in  Cotton  and  Cotton  Oil 
(1901),  gives  valuable  material  but  is  rather  discursive. 
J.  A.  B.  Scherer,  in  Cotton  as  a  World  Power  (1916),  at 
tempts  to  show  the  influence  of  cotton  upon  history. 
Holland  Thompson  in  From  the  Cotton  Field  to  the  Cot 
ton  Mill  (1906)  deals  with  the  economic  and  social 
changes  arising  from  the  development  of  manufactur 
ing  in  an  agricultural  society.  With  this  may  be  men 
tioned  A.  Kohn's  The  Cotton  Mills  of  South  Carolina 
(1907).  M.  T.  Copeland's  The  Cotton  Manufacturing 
Industry  of  the  United  States  (1912)  has  some  interest 
ing  chapters  on  the  South.  T.  M.  Young,  an  English 
labor  leader,  in  The  American  Cotton  Industry  (1903), 
brings  a  fresh  point  of  view.  The  files  of  the  Manu 
facturer's  Record  (Baltimore)  are  indispensable  to  a 
student  of  the  economic  progress  of  the  South. 


238  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

THE  NEGRO  QUESTION 

The  number  of  books,  pamphlets,  and  special  articles 
upon  this  subject,  written  by  Northerners,  Southern 
ers,  negroes,  and  even  foreigners,  is  enormous.  These 
publications  range  from  displays  of  hysterical  emo 
tionalism  to  statistical  studies,  but  no  one  book  can 
treat  fully  all  phases  of  so  complex  a  question.  Bib 
liographies  have  been  prepared  by  W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois, 
A.  P.  C.  Griffin,  and  others.  W.  L.  Fleming  has  ap 
pended  a  useful  list  of  titles  to  Reconstruction  of  the 
Seceded  States  (1905). 

F.  L.  Hoffman,  a  professional  statistician  of  German 
birth,  in  Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  the  American 
Negro  (1896),  has  collected  much  valuable  material  but 
all  his  conclusions  cannot  be  accepted  without  ques 
tion.  Special  Bulletins  on  the  negro  are  published  by 
the  United  States  Census  Bureau,  of  which  the  issues 
for  1904  and  1915  should  especially  be  consulted. 
Some  of  the  Publications  of  Atlanta  University  contain 
valuable  studies  of  special  localities  or  occupations. 

Several  negroes  have  written  histories  of  their  race. 
George  W.  Williams's  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in 
America  from  1619  to  1880,  Z  vols.  (1883),  is  old  but 
contains  material  of  value.  William  H.  Thomas,  in  The 
American  Negro  ( 1 90 1 ) ,  is  pessimistic  as  to  the  future  be 
cause  of  the  moral  delinquencies  of  his  people.  Booker 
T.  Washington's  The  Story  of  the  Negro,  the  Rise  of  the 
Race  from  Slavery  (1909),  on  the  other  hand,  empha 
sizes  achievements  rather  than  deficiencies  and  is  opti 
mistic  in  tone.  Of  this  writer's  several  other  books, 
the  Future  of  the  American  Negro  (1899)  is  the  most 
valuable.  Kelly  Miller  has  written  Race  Adjustment 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  239 

(1908)  and  An  Appeal  to  Conscience  (1918),  besides 
many  articles  and  monographs  all  marked  by  excellent 
temper.  On  the  other  hand,  W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois,  in 
The  Souls  of  Black  Folk  (1903)  and  in  his  other  writ 
ings,  voices  the  bitterness  of  one  to  whom  the  color  line 
has  proved  an  "intolerable  indignity." 

Ray  Stannard  Baker  in  Following  the  Color  Line 
(1908)  gives  the  observations  of  a  trained  metropolitan 
journalist  and  is  eminently  sane  in  treatment.  Wil 
liam  Archer,  the  English  author  and  journalist  ex 
presses  a  European  point  of  view  in  Through  Afro- 
America  (1910).  Carl  Kelsey's  The  Negro  Farmer 
(1903)  is  a  careful  study  of  agricultural  conditions  in 
eastern  Virginia.  A  collection  of  valuable  though  un 
equal  papers  is  contained  in  the  Annals  of  the  Ameri 
can  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science  under  The 
Negro's  Progress  in  Fifty  Years,  No.  138  (1913)  and 
America's  Race  Problem  (1901). 

One  of  the  first  Southerners  to  attack  the  new  prob 
lem  was  A.  G.  Hay  good,  later  a  Bishop  of  the  Meth 
odist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  who  published  Our 
Brother  in  Black,  His  Freedom  and  His  Future  (1881). 
P.  A.  Bruce,  in  The  Plantation  Negro  as  a  Freeman 
(1888),  has  done  an  excellent  piece  of  work.  Thomas 
Nelson  Page,  in  The  Negro,  The  Southerner's  Problem 
(1904),  holds  that  no  good  can  come  through  outside 
interference.  William  B.  Smith's  The  Color  Line 
(1905)  takes  the  position  that  the  negro  is  fundament 
ally  different  from  the  white.  Alfred  Holt  Stone,  in 
Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem  (1908),  has  given 
a  record  of  his  experiences  and  reflections  as  a  cotton 
planter  in  the  delta  region  of  Mississippi,  while  Pa 
tience  Pennington  (pseud.)  in  A  Woman  Rice- Planter 


240  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

(1913)  gives  in  the  form  of  a  diary  a  naive  but  fasci 
nating  account  of  life  in  the  lowlands  of  South  Caro 
lina.  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy,  whose  Problems  of  the 
Present  South  has  already  been  mentioned,  discuss 
es  in  The  Basis  of  Ascendancy  (1909)  the  proper  re 
lations  of  black  and  white.  The  title  of  Gilbert  T. 
Stephenson's  Race  Distinctions  in  American  Law  (1910) 
is  self-explanatory. 


EDUCATION 

No  complete  history  of  education  in  the  South  has 
been  written.  The  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa 
tion  published  years  ago  several  monographs  upon  the 
separate  States.  Edgar  W.  Knight  has  written  an  excel 
lent  history  of  Public  School  Education  in  North  Caro 
lina  (1916).  Carter  G.  Woodson,  The  Education  of  the 
Negro  Prior  to  1861  (1915),  E.  A.  Alderman's  J.  L.  M, 
Curry,  a  Biography  (1911),  and  R.  D.  W.  Connor  and 
C.  W.  Poe's  Life  and  Speeches  of  Charles  Brantley  Ay- 
cock  (1912)  are  illuminating.  J.  L.  M.  Curry's  A  Brief 
Sketch  of  George  Peabody  and  a  History  of  the  Peabody 
Education  Fund  through  Thirty  Years  (1898)  gives  an 
excellent  idea  of  the  situation  after  Reconstruction. 
The  General  Education  Board;  an  Account  of  its  Activi 
ties,  1902-191  If  (1915)  contains  interesting  facts  on 
the  educational  situation  of  today.  The  reports  of  the 
state  Departments  of  Education,  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education,  of  the  Conference  for  Education 
in  the  South,  and  of  the  Peabody,  Slater,  and  Jeanes 
Funds  should  be  consulted.  The  two  volumes  on  Negro 
Education,  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  Bulle- 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  241 

tins  Nos.  38  and  39  (1916)  are  invaluable.  There  are 
also  histories  of  some  of  the  state  universities  and  of 
the  church  and  private  schools. 

FICTION 

Some  of  the  best  historical  material  on  the  changing 
South  is  in  the  form  of  fiction.  A  number  of  gifted 
writers  have  pictured  limited  fields  with  skill  and 
truth.  Mary  Noailles  Murfree  (pseud.,  Charles  Eg 
bert  Craddock)  has  written  of  the  mountain  people  of 
Tennessee,  while  John  Fox,  Jr.  has  done  the  same  for 
Kentucky  and  the  Virginia  and  West  Virginia  moun 
tains.  George  W.  Cable  and  Grace  King  have  de 
picted  Louisiana  in  the  early  part  of  this  period,  while 
rural  life  in  Georgia  has  been  well  described  in  the 
stories  of  Joel  Chandler  Harris,  better  known  from  his 
Uncle  Remus  books.  In  The  Voice  of  the  People  (1900) 
Ellen  Glasgow  has  produced,  in  the  form  of  fiction,  an 
important  historical  document  on  the  rise  of  the  com 
mon  man.  In  The  Southerner  (1909)  Nicholas  Worth 
(understood  to  be  the  pseudonym  of  a  distinguished 
editor  and  diplomat)  has  made  a  careful  study  of  condi 
tions  in  North  Carolina  between  1875  and  1895,  while 
Thomas  Dixon  in  The  Leopard's  Spots  (1902)  has  crude 
ly  but  powerfully  drawn  a  picture  of  the  campaign 
for  negro  disfranchisement  in  that  State. 

In  his  Old  Judge  Priest  stories,  Irvin  S.  Cobb  has 
described  the  rural  towns  of  Kentucky;  and  Corra 
Harris  from  personal  experience  has  given  striking 
pictures  of  the  rural  South  principally  in  relation  to 
religion.  The  short  stories  of  Harris  Dickson  portray 
the  negro  of  the  Mississippi  towns.  The  stories  of 

16 


242  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Thomas  Nelson  Page  and  of  Ruth  McEnery  Stuart 
should  also  be  mentioned.  Owen  Wister  has  drawn  a 
striking  picture  of  Charleston  in  Lady  Baltimore 
(1906),  while  Henry  Sydnor  Harrison  in  Queed  (1911) 
and  his  later  stories  has  done  something  similar  for 
Richmond. 


INDEX 


Agricultural  Wheel,  34 

Agriculture,  farmers'  revolt,  31 
et  seq.\  farmer  and  the  land, 
60  et  seq.\  county  demon 
strators,  75-77,  184;  Farm 
Loan  Act,  84;  influence  on 
labor,  116;  economic  future 
of  South  in,  198-99 

Alabama,  Conservative  party 
in,  12;  Kolb  in,  37-38;  Popu 
list  party,  42 ;  suffrage  amend 
ments,  54-55;  boys'  corn 
club.  79;  cotton  mills,  97; 
iron  industry,  101;  mines, 
102;  bituminous  coal,  102; 
school  fund,  158  (note); 
Catholics  in,  214;  repudia 
tion  of  debt,  227 

American  Tobacco  Company, 
103 

Archer,  William,  Through  Afro- 
America,  quoted,  141 

Arkansas,  hillmen  of,  6;  Agri 
cultural  Wheel  in,  34;  elec 
tion  (1896),  44;  lumbering, 
100;  mixed  schools,  161; 
industrialism,  193;  migration 
to,  194;  woman  suffrage, 
202;  Catholics  in,  214;  re 
pudiation  of  debt,  230-31 

Atlanta  (Ga.),  Cotton  Ex 
position  (1881),  89 

Aycock,  C.  B.,  Governor  of 
North  Carolina,  57 

Badeau,    General    Adam,    and 
expression  "New  South,"  7 
Baptist  Church,  214,  215-16 


Bayard,  T.  F.,  of  Delaware,  28 

Birmingham  (Ala.),  steel  cen 
ter,  101-02 

Blair  Bill,  27 

Blease,  C.  L.,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  122,  150 

Boys  'and  girls' clubs,  76,78-81 

Brothers  of  Freedom,  34 

Bryan,  W.  J.,  presidential 
nomination,  44 

Buck.  S.  J.,  The  Agrarian 
Crusade,  cited,  25  (note),  44 
(note) 

Butler,  Marion,  of  North 
Carolina,  43 

Butler,  M.  C.,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  13,  41 

Calhoun,  J.  C.,  agricultural 
college  founded  on  planta 
tion  of,  42 

Carlisle,  J.  G.,  of  Kentucky,  29 

Carnegie  Foundation  and  col 
lege  standards,  189 

Carolinas,  differing  economic 
conditions,  6;  Scotch-Irish 
in,  6;  see  also  North  Caro 
lina,  South  Carolina 

Carpetbaggers'  rule  over 
thrown,  9,  12 

Catholic  Church,  214 

Charleston  (S.  C.),  party  man 
agement  in,  39;  Tillman  and, 
40 

Child  labor,  state  restrictions, 
97,  118;  in  cotton  mills,  109, 
114-15,  117;  Federal  Child 
Labor  Act,  118 


243 


244 


INDEX 


Civil  service,  Cleveland  and, 
29 

Civil  War,  blockade  as  reason 
for  South's  defeat,  3;  effect 
on  South,  196 

Cleveland,  Grover,  election 
(1884),  28;  and  the  South, 
^  29 

"Cleveland  Democracy,"  40 

Congregational  Church,  216 
(note) 

Congress,  ex- Confederate  sol 
diers  in,  13,  26;  negroes  in, 
20;  reelection  of  Senators, 
28;  "Force  Bill"  (1890), 
48;  Southern  representation, 
200-01 

Congressional  Record,  cited,  13 

Constitution,  Fourteenth 
Amendment,  22 

Corn,  price  in  South,  35;  as 
crop  in  South,  64;  boys' 
corn  clubs,  78-79 

Cotton,  price  and  production, 
35;  favorite  crop,  63,  197; 
mills,  88-98,  108-21,  195; 
cottonseed  products,  99- 
100;  "linters,"  100;  need 
of  cotton-picking  machine, 
197-98 

Coxe,  Tench,  Statement  of  Arts 
and  Manufactures,  cited,  86 

Curry,  Dr.  J.  L.  M.,  27,  169-70 

Daughters  of  the  Confederacy, 
210 

Debt,  see  Finance 

Delaware  as  Southern  State, 
5;  Grange  in,  32;  school  fund 
(1796),  157-58  (note);  for 
eign  born  in,  194;  surplus  of 
wheat  (1917),  199;  Catholics 
in,  214;  churches,  214 

Democratic  party,  at  end  of 
Reconstruction  period,  9; 
called  Conservative  party, 
11-12;  and  political  consoli 
dation,  12;  Farmers'  Alliance 
and,  36;  Georgia  convention 


(1890),  37;  controlling  in 
fluence  of,  38;  Populist 
party  and,  42-43,  47,  201; 
nature  of,  201;  split  in  Ar 
kansas,  231 

Disciples'  Church,  216  (note) 
Durham  (N.  C.),  tobacco  in 
dustry  in,  103 

Education,  Blair  Bill,  27;  in 
South  Carolina,  42;  Populist 
attitude  toward,  46;  negro 
schools,  57;  agricultural  col 
leges  and  experiment  sta 
tions,  75;  county  demon 
strators,  75-77,  184;  boys' 
and  girls'  clubs,  76,  78-81; 
General  Education  Board, 
76-77,  183-84,  186,  189; 
college  students,  83;  mills 
aid  schools,  119;  progress, 
157  et  seq.;  country  schools, 
164;  academies,  164-65,  171; 
colleges,  165-66,  187:  graded 
schools,  166;  taxation  for, 
170,  172,  185,  186;  opposi 
tion  to  public  schools,  171- 
172;  normal  schools,  172; 
better  buildings,  172;  small 
districts,  173;  length  of 
school  term,  173,  184;  funds 
for  negro,  182-83;  secondary 
schools,  186;  preparation  for 
college,  188;  bibliography, 
240-41;  see  also  Negroes 

Education,  Bureau  of,  Report 
on  Negro  Education,  174,  178 

Elections,  intimidation  of  ne 
groes,  18-19;  frauds,  19-20; 
North  threatens  Federal 
control,  21;  (1896),  44; 
(1900),  45-46;  primaries,  47, 
199;  "Force  Bill"  (1890),  48 

Episcopal  Church,  215 

Farm  Loan  Act,  84 
Farmers'  Alliance,  30,  33 
Farmers'   Union  of  Louisiana. 
34 


INDEX 


245 


Fiction  on  the  South,  bibliog 
raphy  of,  241-42 

Field,  Marshall,  and  Company 
own  mills  in  North  Carolina, 
95 

Finance,  problem  in  South,  22; 
repudiation  of  state  debts, 
22,  227-33;  economies  of 
new  state  governments,  24- 
25;  platform  of  National 
Alliance  and  Knights  of 
Labor  on,  34;  subtreasury 
plan,  34-35;  merchants  as 
bankers,  61-65;  crop  lien, 
62-63;  Farm  Loan  Act,  84; 
see  also  Tariff,  Taxation 

Fisk  University,  179 

Fleming,  W.  L.,  The  Sequel  of 
Appomattox,  cited,  2  (note), 
27  (note);  Civil  War  and 
Reconstruction  in  Alabama, 
cited,  227  (note) 

Florida,  end  of  carpetbag  rule 
in,  9;  mines,  102;  cigar  indus 
try,  104;  bonds  as  part  of 
Peabody  Fund,  167;  migra 
tion  to,  194;  debt,  227 

Freedmen's  Aid  Societies, 
schools  for  negroes  opened 
by,  173 

Freedmen's  Bureau,  27 

French  in  Louisiana,  6 

Friends,  Society  of,  influence 
in  South,  16 

Garland,  A.  H.,  of  Arkansas,  28 
General  Education  Board,  76- 

77,  183-84,  186,  189 
Georgia,  Democratic  conven 
tion  (1890),  37;  Populist 
party  (1892),  42;  cotton 
mills,  88,  97;  knitting  in 
dustry,  98;  cottonseed  oil 
industry,  100;  fertilizer  in 
dustry,  100;  lynchings  in, 
155;  school  fund  (1817),  158 
(note);  imports,  195;  Catho 
lics  in,  214;  repudiation  of 
debt,  229 


Girls'  canning  clubs,  80 

Gordon,  J.  B.,  13,  37 

Grady,  H.  W.,  uses  expression 
"New  South,"  7-8;  editor 
of  Atlanta  Constitution,  223 

Grange  movement,  29,  31-33 

Great  War,  negroes  in  knitting 
mills  during,  126;  migration 
of  negroes  to  North  during, 
132-33;  negro  women  in  Red 
Cross  work,  149;  and  capital 
in  South,  196;  South  and, 
201 ;  and  nationalism,  210-1 1 

Greenback  movement,  25, 
29-30 

Hamilton,  J.  G.   de  R.,  Recon 
struction   in  North  Carolina, 
cited,  228  (note) 
Hampton,  Wade,  13,  41 
Hampton   Institute,  174,   177, 

178 

Hookworm  disease,  73-74 
Howard  University,  179 
Hughes,  C.  E.,  North  Carolina 
vote  for  (1916),  57 

Industries,  vegetable  growing, 
84;  industrial  development, 
86  et  seq.\  textile,  88-98, 
106-21,  126-27;  manufac 
ture  of  cottonseed  products, 
99-100;  fertilizers,  100;  lum 
bering,  100,  123-24;  iron, 
101;  wood,  101;  steel,  101- 
102;  mining,  102;  tobacco, 
102-04,  124-26;  roller  mills, 
104;  close  to  raw  material, 
194-95;  see  also  Agriculture, 
Cotton 

Jeanes,  Anna  T.,  183 
Jeanes  Fund,  183,  184 

Kelley,  O.  H.,  31 

Kellogg,  W.  P.,  Governor  of 

Louisiana,  229 
Kentucky,  as  Southern  State, 

5;    Grange    in,    32;    mines. 


246 


INDEX 


Kentucky — Continued 

102;  bituminous  coal,  102; 
tobacco  industry,  103;  free 
from  lynchings,  155;  school 
fund,  158  (note);  Catholics 
in,  214;  Disciples  in,  216 
(note) 

Knapp,  Bradford,  son  of  S.  A., 
78 

Knapp,  Dr.  S.  A.,  76-77,  78 

Knights  of  Labor,  meeting  at 
St.  Louis  (1889),  34 

Kolb,  R.  F.,  37-38 

Labor,  conditions  in  South, 
106  et  seq.;  native,  106,  194; 
negro,  106-07,  126-27;  in 
textile  industry,  106-21; 
state  restrictions,  118;  in 
furniture  factories,  122-23; 
in  lumber  mills,  123-24; 
contract,  123-24;  tobacco 
manufacture,  124-26;  or 
ganization  of,  127-28;  recent 
problem,  197;  see  also  Child 
labor 

Lamar,  L.  Q.  C.,  of  Missouri, 
28,  29 

Land,  demand  for  restriction 
to  settlers,  34;  tenant  sys 
tem,  60  et  seq.,  219;  different 
plans  of  landholding,  65- 
69;  relation  between  land 
lord  and  tenant,  70;  white 
tenancy,  73;  tilled  by  owners, 
74-75;  cultivation,  81;  food 
crops,  81-82 

Liquor  traffic,  made  State 
monopoly,  41-42;  problem 
after  Reconstruction,  57-59; 
see  also  Prohibition 

Louisiana,  negro  majority  in, 
10;  Farmers'  Union  of,  34; 
election  (1892),  42;  election 
(1896),  44;  "grandfather 
clause"  in  constitution,  51- 
52;  lumbering,  100;  mines, 
102;  tobacco  industry,  103; 
cigar  industry,  104;  lynch 


ings  in,  155;  mixed  schools, 

160-61;    Catholics   in,    214; 

churches,    214;    repudiation 

of  debt,  229-30 
Lumbering,  100,  123-24 
Lutheran  Church,  216  (note) 

Mahone,  General  William, 
232 

Manufactures,  see  Industries 

Maryland,  as  Southern  State, 
5;  Grange  in,  32;  fertili 
zer  industry,  100;  manu 
factures,  104;  free  from 
lynchings,  154-55;  school 
fund  (1813),  158  (note); 
foreign  born  in,  193;  sur 
plus  of  wheat  (1917),  199; 
Catholics  in,  214;  churches, 
214 

Massachusetts  leads  in  cotton 
products,  98 

Meharry  Medical  College,  179 

Methodist  Church,  214,  215- 
216 

Mills,  R.  Q.,  of  Texas,  29 

Mining,  102 

Minnesota,  manufactures, 
104-05 

Mississippi,  negro  majority  in, 
10;  new  constitution  (1890), 
49;  suffrage,  49-50;  lumber 
ing,  100;  lynchings  in,  155; 
school  fund,  158  (note); 
mixed  schools  in,  160-61; 
bonds  as  part  of  Peabody 
Fund,  167;  industrialism, 
193;  foreign  born  in,  193- 
194;  Catholics  in,  214;  debt, 
227 

Missouri,  not  included  in 
South,  5;  Grange  in,  32; 
election  (1896),  44;  tobacco 
industry,  103;  woman  suf 
frage,  202 

Missouri  Compromise  and 
sectionalism,  16 

Morrison,  W.  R.,  29 

Mountaineers,  14-16 


INDEX 


247 


Nashville  (Term.),  Peabody 
Normal  College,  169;  Me- 
harry  Medical  College,  179; 
Vanderbilt  University,  188 

National  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Colored 
People,  Thirty  Years  of 
Lynching  (1919),  154  (note) 

National  Farmers'  Alliance 
and  Cooperative  Union  of 
America,  34 

Negroes,  suffrage,  2,  18-19,  21, 
45,  48,  49,  50-55,  202-03; 
distribution  of,  10;  in  moun 
tain  counties,  15;  support 
Federal  officials,  17;  sent  to 
Congress,  20;  relation  of 
races,  22,  129  et  seq.;  fear  of 
domination  wanes,  30;  not 
admitted  to  Grange,  32; 
politics  in  North  Carolina, 
45;  segregation,  57;  use  of 
drugs,  59;  as  share  tenants, 
67;  opportunity  for,  71;  in 
furniture  factories,  122;  in 
tobacco  factories,  124-25;  in 
textile  industry,  126-27;  per 
sonal  characteristics,  126- 
127,  135;  occupations,  127, 
133-37;  unorganized,  127- 
128;  increase  in  numbers, 
130-32;  migration  to  North, 
132-33,  156,  197;  farm 
owners,  134;  illiteracy,  137- 
139,  166;  treatment  in  North, 
139-40;  treatment  in  South, 
140  et  seq. ;  "old-time  negro," 
142-43;  "new  negro,"  142, 
143-44;  educated,  144-47; 
and  Great  War,  149;  mu- 
lattoes,  150;  and  lower 
classes  of  whites,  150-51; 
lynchings,  151-55;  plans  for 
solution  of  problem,  155- 
156;  problem  in  South  Africa, 
156;  education,  160-63,  164, 
171-72,  173-84;  criminals 
and  dependents,204-05,220- 
223;  bibliography,  238-40 


New  England,  mill  machinery 
from,  90;  mills  build  South 
ern  branches,  92;  Southern 
wages  compared  with,  110- 
111 

NewOrleans,Exposition(1884), 
89;  tobacco  industry,  103 

New  York,  election  frauds,  20 

Newspapers,  223-24 

North,  negroes  in,  139;  migra 
tion  of  negroes  to,  132-33, 
156,  197;  treatment  of  ne 
groes  in,  139-40 

North  Carolina,  Friends  in, 
16;  negroes  sent  to  Congress 
from,  20:  gives  up  local 
self-government,  21;  Popu 
list  party,  42;  revolt  from 
Democratic  party,  43;  elec 
tion  (1896),  44;  election 
(1900),  45;  fusion  govern 
ment,  45;  suffrage,  52-54; 
Republican  opposition  in,56- 
57;  textile  products  (1810), 
86;  first  cotton  mill  (1810), 
88;  Marshall  Field  and 
Company  owns  mills  in,  95; 
cotton  mills,  97;  knitting  in 
dustry,  98;  lumbering,  100; 
furniture  manufacture,  101; 
minerals,  102;  tobacco  pro 
duction,  103;  Republican 
party,  122;  free  from  lynch 
ings,  155;  school  fund,  158- 
159;  public  schools,  163,  184- 
185;  school  term,  173;  negro 
education,  179-81;  school 
expenditures,  179-81;  for 
eign  born  in,  193-94;  chair 
manship  of  committees  in 
65th  Congress,  200  (note); 
Catholics  in,  214;  school 
libraries,  224;  repudiation  of 
debt,  227-29 

North  Carolina,  University  of, 
168 

Ocala  (Fla.),  Alliance  conven 
tion,  34 


248 


INDEX 


Oklahoma,  as  Southern  State, 
5-6;  disfranchising  amend 
ment,  55-56;  mines,  102; 
disproportionate  number  of 
lynchings  in,  155;  migration 
to,  194;  surplus  of  wheat 
(1917),  199;  woman  suffrage, 
202;  Catholics  in,  214 

Page,  Thomas  Nelson,  and 
"typical  Southerner,"  203 

Patrons  of  Husbandry,  see 
Grange  movement 

Peabody,  George,  167 

Peabody  Fund,  167 

Peabody  Normal  College,  169 

People's  party,  36;  see  also 
Populist  party 

Phelps  Stokes,  Caroline,  183 

Phelps  Stokes  Fund,  183 

Philadelphia  election  frauds, 
20 

Plantations,  system  discon 
tinued,  60;  in  the  Old  South, 
87 

Politics,  consolidation  of  South, 
10-12;  Confederate  soldiers 
in,  13;  see  also  names  of 
parties 

Pope,  General  John,  predic 
tion  as  to  negro  development, 
130 

Populist  party  in  South,  42  et 
seq.',  see  also  People's  party 

Presbyterian  Church,  214,  215 

Prices,  decline,  25,  31;  of 
cotton,  35;  Populist  party 
and  rising,  46;  Southern 
credit  system  and,  72;  rise 
of,  84;  (1890-1900),  107 

Pritchard,  J.  C.,  43,  45 

Prohibition,  South  and,  58, 
202;  see  also  Liquor  traffic 

Quakers,  see  Friends,  Society  of 

Railroads,  government  owner 
ship,  34 
Ransom,  M.  T.,  13,  43 


Readjusters,  political  party  in 
Virginia,  231-32 

Reconstruction,  2-4;  end  of, 
9;  Union  element  makes 
possible,  17;  debt,  22-23; 
and  schools,  157,  159-61; 
bibliography,  235 

Red  Cross,  149,  211 

Religion,  213  et  seq. 

Republican  party,  and  end  of 
Reconstruction,  9;  called 
Radical  party,  1 1 ;  and  moun 
taineers,  16;  Quakers  and, 
16;  Union  element  in  South, 
16-17;  organization  dis 
continued,  21;  failures,  26; 
success  (1893-95),  43 

Richmond  (Va.),  tobacco 
industry,  103,  104 

Riddleberger,  H.  H.,  231-32 

Roads,  107 

Rockefeller  Foundation,  re 
searches,  73-74 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  Missis 
sippi  vote  (1912),  50 

Rosenwald,  Julius,  and  negro 
education,  183 

St.  Louis,  session  of  National 
Alliance  at  (1889),  34;  to 
bacco  industry,  103 

Scalawags,  Confederate  sol 
diers  against,  12 

Scotch-Irish  in  South,  6;  and 
Presbyterianism,  215 

Scott,  W.  A.,  The  Repudiation 
of  State  Debts,  cited,  227 
(note) 

Sears,  Barnas,  General  Agent 
of  Peabody  Fund,  167-68 

Secession,  past  issue,  192 

Sewall,  Arthur,  candidate  for 
Vice-President,  44 

Silver,  free  coinage,  43-44 

Slater,  John  F.,  Fund,  182-83 

Slavery  among  mountaineers, 
15 

Smith,  F.  Hopkinson,  and 
"typical  Southerner,"  203 


INDEX 


249 


Social  conditions,  82-83,  203 
et  seq.;  in  mill  towns,  119- 
21 

Sons  of  Veterans,  210 

South,  New  as  distinguished 
from  Old,  1-8;  geographical 
limits,  5-6;  beginning  of 
New,  10;  political  consolida 
tion,  10-12;  character  of 
people,  11;  Republicanism 
in,  13  et  seq.;  mountaineers, 
14-16;  election  frauds,  19- 
20;  debt,  22-24;  and  agra 
rian  revolt,  26;  participation 
in  national  affairs,  28; 
Grange  in,  31-33;  social 
conditions,  82-83,  119-21, 
203  et  seq.;  Socialist  vote  in, 
128;  growing  sense  of  re 
sponsibility  for  negro,  148; 
education,  157  et  seq.;  of  to 
day,  191  et  seq.;  population, 
193-94;  present  political  con 
dition,  199-203;  jails  and 
almshouses,  204-05;  orphan 
ages,  205-06;  juvenile  de 
linquents,  206;  democracy, 
206-07;  hospitality,  207; 
amusements,  208,  217;  power 
of  public  opinion,  212-13; 
churches,  213-17;  crimes, 
220-21;  leaders,  223;  news 
papers,  223-24;  books  and 
libraries,  224-25;  contrasts  in, 
226;  bibliography,  235-42 

South  Carolina,  inhabitants,  6; 
negro  majority,  10;  "eight 
box  law,"  19;  .negroes  sent 
to  Congress  from,  20;  politi 
cal  revolt,  39;  representa 
tion  in  Senate,  41;  suffrage 
amendments,  50-51;  boys' 
corn  club,  79;  cotton  mills, 
97;  Blease  in,  122;  school 
fund,  158  (note);  mixed 
schools,  160-61;  foreign  born 
in,  193-94;  Catholics  in,  214; 
repudiation  of  debt,  229 

Stokes,  see  Phelps  Stokes 


Stone,    A.    H.,   on   Mississippi 

negro,  71-72 

Suffrage,  see  Negroes,  Women 
Supreme  Court,  Oklahoma 
disfranchisement  amendment, 
declared  unconstitutional, 
55-56,  203;  Bailey  vs.  Ala 
bama,  123-24;  South  Da 
kota  vs.  North  Carolina,  228; 
cases  against  Louisiana,  230; 
and  Virginia  debt,  231,  232; 
debt  of  West  Virginia,  232 

Taft,  W.  H.,  Mississippi  vote 
(1912),  50;  North  Carolina 
vote  (1908),  56 

Tariff,  South  and  Cleveland 
agree  on,  29;  platform  of 
National  Alliance  calls  for 
reform  of,  34 

Taxation,  Mississippi,  49;  for 
education,  170,  172,  185,  186 

Tennessee,  Grange  in,  31-32; 
Populist  party  in,  42;  girls' 
canning  club,  80;  cotton 
mills,  98;  knitting  industry, 
98;  iron  industry,  101; 
bituminous  coal,  102;  mines, 
102;  school  fund  (1806),  157 
(note);  woman  suffrage,  202; 
Catholics  in,  214;  Disciples 
in,  216  (note) 

Texas,  Farmers'  Alliance,  33, 
34;  Populist  party  (1892), 
42;  boll  weevil,  76;  encour 
agement  of  food  crops  in, 
82;  cottonseed  oil  industry, 
•  100;  mines,  102;  lynchings  in, 
155;  foreign  born  in,  193; 
migration  to,  194;  woman 
suffrage,  202;  Catholics  in, 
214;  no  attempt  made  to  re 
pudiate  debt,  227 

Tillman,  Benjamin  R.,  39-41 

Tobacco,  a  favorite  crop,  63; 
industry,  102-04;  labor  con 
ditions  in  factories,  124-26 

Tompkins,  D.  A.,  on  cotton 
production,  108 


250 


INDEX 


Toombs,     Robert,     and     New 

South,  192 
Tourgee,  A.  W.,  2;  Appeal  to 

Ccesar,  131 
Tuskegee  Institute,  174,  177, 

178;  statistics  on  lynching, 

154  (note) 

Vance,  Z.  B.,  of  North  Caro 
lina,  13,  43;  and  teaching  of 
pedagogy,  174-75 

Vanderbilt  University,  188 

Vardaman,  James  K.,of  Missis 
sippi,  150 

Virginia,  differing  economic 
conditions,  C;  cotton  mills, 
98;  knitting  industry,  98; 
iron  industry,  101;  mines, 
102;  tobacco  production, 
103;  school  fund  (1810), 
157-58  (note);  surplus  of 
wheat  (1917),  199;  Catho 
lics  in,  214;  repudiation  of 
debt,  231-32 

Wages,  in  cotton  mills,  109, 
110,  113;  in  tobacco  fac 
tories,  126 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  cited, 
143;  "intellectuals"  ene 
mies  of,  146;  and  Tuskegee, 
177 

Washington  (D.  C.),  Howard 
University,  179 

Watson,  T.  E.,  44 


Watterson,  Henry,  of  the 
Louisville  Courier- Journal, 
223 

West  Virginia,  as  Southern 
State,  5;  Grange  in,  32;  iron 
industry,  101;  bituminous 
coal,  102;  mines,  102;  free 
from  iynchings,  154-55; 
Catholics  in,  214;  Virginia 
assigns  debt  to  (1871),  231; 
settlement  of  controversy, 
232-33 

Wheat,  winter,  63-64;  roller 
mills,  104 

Whig  party  dislikes  name 
Democrat,  12 

Wiley,  C.  H.,  superintendent 
of  education  in  North  Caro 
lina,  159 

Wilmington  (N.  C.),  uprising 
of  whites  in,  45 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  North  Caro 
lina  vote  (1916),  57 

Winston-Salem  (N.  C.),  to 
bacco  industry,  103 

Winthrop,  R.  C.,  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  Peabody  Fund, 
167 

Women,  in  mills,  97;  suffrage, 
202,  213;  position  in  South, 
208-10;  and  Great  War, 
211-12;  independence,  213; 
and  churches,  213-14 

Young,  T.  M.,  The  American 
Cotton  Industry,  quoted,  112 


AN  OUTLINE  OF  THE  PLAN  OF 
THE  CHRONICLES  OF  AMERICA 


The  fifty  titles  of  the  Series  fall  into  eight  topical  sequences  or  groups, 
each  with  a  dominant  theme  of  its  own— 


I.   The  Morning  of  America 
TIME:  1492-1763 

THE  theme  of  the  first  sequence  is  the  struggle  of  nations  for  the 
possession  of  the  New  World.  The  mariners  of  four  European  king 
doms — Spain,  Portugal,  France,  and  England — are  intent  upon  the 
discovery  of  a  new  route  to  Asia.  They  come  upon  the  American  continent 
which  blocks  the  way.  Spain  plants  colonies  in  the  south,  lured  by  gold. 
France,  in  pursuit  of  the  fur  trade,  plants  colonies  in  the  north.  Englishmen, 
in  search  of  homes  and  of  a  wider  freedom,  occupy  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 
These  Englishmen  come  in  time  to  need  the  land  into  which  the  French 
have  penetrated  by  way  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes,  and  a 
mighty  struggle  between  the  two  nations  takes  place  in  the  wilderness, 
ending  in  the  expulsion  of  the  French.  This  sequence  comprises  ten  volumes: 

1.  THE  RED  MAN'S  CONTINENT,  by  Ellsworth  Huntington 

2.  THE  SPANISH  CONQUERORS,  by  Irving  Berdine  Rlchman 

3.  ELIZABETHAN  SEA-DOGS,  by  William  Woo4^ 

4.  CRUSADERS  OF  NEW  FRANCE,  by  William  Bennett  Mupro 

5.  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH,  by  Mary  Johnston 

6.  THE  FATHERS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND,  by  Charles  M.  Andrews 

7.  DUTCH  AND  ENGLISH  ON  THE  HUDSON,  by  Maud  Wilder  Goodwin 

8.  THE  QUAKER  COLONIES,  by  Sydney  G.  Fisher 

9.  COLONIAL  FOLKWAYS,  by  Charles  M.  Andrews 

IO.  THE  CONQUEST  OF  NEW  FRANCE,  by  George  M.  Wrong 


II.   The  Thinning  of  Independence 
TIME:  1763-1815 

The  French  peril  has  passed,  and  the  great  territory  between  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  the  Mississippi  is  now  open  to  the  Englishmen  on  the  seaboard, 
with  no  enemy  to  contest  their  right  of  way  except  the  Indian.  But  the 
question  arises  whether  these  Englishmen  in  the  New  World  shall  submit 
to  political  dictation  from  the  King  and  Parliament  of  England.  To  decide 
this  question  the  War  of  the  Revolution  is  fought;  the  Union  is  born: 
and  the  second  war  with  England  follows.  Seven  volumes: 

11.  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION,  by  Carl  Becker 

12.  WASHINGTON  AND  HIS  COMRADES  IN  ARMS,  by  George  M.  Wrong 

13.  THE  FATHERS  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION,  by  Max  Farrand 

14.  WASHINGTON  AND  HIS  COLLEAGUES,  by  Henry  Jones  Ford 

15.  JEFFERSON  AND  HIS  COLLEAGUES,  by  Allen  Johnson 

16.  JOHN  MARSHALL  AND  THE  CONSTITUTION,  by  Edward  S.  Corwirt 

17.  THE  FIGHT  FOR  A  FREE  SEA,  by  Ralph  D.  Paine 

III.   The  Vision  of  the  West 
TIME:  1750-1890 

The  theme  of  the  third  sequence  is  the  American  frontier — the  conquest 
of  the  continent  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  story  covers 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  from  the  first  crossing  of  the  Alleghanies  by 
the  backwoodsmen  of  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas  (about 
1750)  to  the  heyday  of  the  cowboy  on  the  Great  Plains  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  This  is  the  marvelous  tale  of  the  greatest  migra 
tions  in  history,  told  in  nine  volumes  as  follows: 

1 8.  PIONEERS  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST,  by  Constance  Lindsay  Skinner 

19.  THE  OLD  NORTHWEST,  by  Frederic  Austin  Ogg 

20.  THE  REIGN  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON,  by  Frederic  Austin  Ogg 

21.  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE,  by  Archer  B.  Hulbert 

22.  ADVENTURERS  OF  OREGON,  by  Constance  Lindsay  Skinner  N  • '\ 

23.  THE  SPANISH  BORDERLANDS,  by  Herbert  E.  Eolton    *- 

24.  TEXAS  AND  THE  MEXICAN  WAR,  by  Nathaniel  W.  Stephenson 

25.  THE  FORTY-NINERS,  by  Stewart  Edward  White 

16.  THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRONTIER,  by  Emerson  Hough 


IV.   The  Storm  of  Secession 
TIME:  1830-1876 

The  curtain  rises  on  the  gathering  storm  of  secession.  The  theme  of  the 
fourth  sequence  is  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  which  carries  with  it  the 
extermination  of  slavery.  Six  volumes  as  follows: 

27.  THE  COTTON  KINGDOM,  by  William  E.  Dodd 

28.  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CRUSADE,  by  JeSSC  Macy 

29.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  AND  THE  UNION,  by  Nathaniel  W.  Slephenson 

30.  THE  DAY  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY,  by  Nathaniel  W.  Stephenson 

31.  CAPTAINS  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR,  by  William  Wood 

32.  THE  SEQUEL  OF  APPOMATTOX,  by  Walter  Lynwood  Fleming 

V.    The  Intellectual  Life 

Two  volumes  follow  on  the  higher  national  life,  telling  of  the  nation's  great 
teachers  and  interpreters: 

33.  THE  AMERICAN  SPIRIT  IN  EDUCATION,  by  Edwin  E.  SloSSOn 

34.  THE  AMERICAN  SPIRIT  IN  LITERATURE,  by  BltSS  Perry 

VI .   The  Epic  of  Commerce  and  Industry 

The  sixth  sequence  is  devoted  to  the  romance  of  industry  and  business, 
and  the  dominant  theme  is  the  transformation  caused  by  the  inflow  of 
immigrants  and  the  development  and  utilization  of  mechanics  on  a  great 
scale.  The  long  age  of  muscular  power  has  passed,  and  the  era  of  mechanical 
power  has  brought  with  it  a  new  kind  of  civilization.  Eight  volumes: 

35.  OUR  FOREIGNERS,  by  Samuel  P.  Orth 

36.  THE  OLD  MERCHANT  MARINE,  by  Ralph  D.  Paine 

37.  THE  AGE  OF  INVENTION,  by  Holland  Thompson 

38.  THE  RAILROAD  BUILDERS,  by  John  Moody 

39.  THE  AGE  OF  BIG  BUSINESS,  by  Burton  J.  Hendrick 

40.  THE  ARMIES  OF  LABOR,  by  Samuel  P.  Orth 

41.  THE  MASTERS  OF  CAPITAL,  by  John  Moody 

42.  THE  NEW  SOUTH,  by  Holland  Thompson 


VII.   The  Era  of  World  Power 

The  seventh  sequence  carries  on  the  story  of  government  and  diplomacy 
and  political  expansion  from  the  Reconstruction  (1876)  to  the  present  day, 
in  six  volumes: 

43.  THE  BOSS  AND  THE  MACHINE,  by  Samuel  P.  Orth 

44.  THE  CLEVELAND  ERA,  by  Henry  Jones  Ford 

45.  THE  AGRARIAN  CRUSADE,  by  Solon  J.  Buck 

46.  THE  PATH  OF  EMPIRE,  by  Carl  Rus sell  Fish 

47.  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  TIMES,  by  Harold  Howland 

48.  WOODROW  WILSON  AND  THE  WORLD  WAR,  by  Charles  Seymour 

VIII.   Our  Neighbors 

Now  to  round  out  the  story  of  the  continent,  the  Hispanic  peoples  on 
the  south  and  the  Canadians  on  the  north  are  taken  up  where  they  were 
dropped  further  ba.ck  in  the  Series,  and  these  peoples  are  followed  down 
to  the  present  day: 

49.  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION,  by  Oscar  D.  Skelton 

50.  THE  HISPANIC  NATIONS  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD,  by  William  R.  Shepherd 

The  Chronicles  of  America  is  thus  a  great  synthesis,  giving  a  new  projec 
tion  and  a  new  interpretation  of  American  History.  These  narratives  are 
works  of  real  scholarship,  for  every  one  is  written  after  an  exhaustive 
examination  of  the  sources.  Many  of  them  contain  new  facts;  some  of  them 
— such  as  those  by  Howland,  Seymour,  and  Hough — are  founded  on  inti 
mate  personal  knowledge.  But  the  originality  of  the  Series  lies,  not  chiefly 
in  new  facts,  but  rather  in  new  ideas  and  new  combinations  of  old  facts. 

The  General  Editor  of  the  Series  is  Dr.  Allen  Johnson,  Chairman  of  the 
Department  of  History  of  Yale  University,  and  the  entire  work  has  been 
planned,  prepared,  and  published  under  the  control  of  the  Council's 
Committee  on  Publications  of  Yale  University. 

YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

143  ELM  STREET,  NEW  HAVEN 
522  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


LOAN  DEPT. 


LOWED 


YB  44943 


